The Jesuit Connection to the Canon of Shakespeare

What is it about?

The article explores the extraordinarily deep connection of Jesuit missionary writing and activity to the canon of Shakespeare -- especially at a time when Shakespeare was still alive but Catholicism and the priesthood were illegal. The article encompasses the author's longtime research into the historical context of Shakespeare's plays and poems. It specifically finds Jesuit political and pastoral goals, as well as highly nuanced aspects of the Ignatian spirituality of the Jesuits, in The Tempest. The article finds an extraordinary connection between the political writings of the Jesuit John Floyd and The Tempest -- not only in diction and parallel thought but in the similar life circumstances of Floyd and the play's main character, Prospero -- more than a decade before The Tempest was published for the first time.

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Why is it important?

The article is important, because it directly addresses the highly debated authorship question and provides answers as to whom might have been influencing the canon of Shakespeare. By identifying for the first time nuanced aspects of Ignatian spirituality that are incorporated into The Tempest, the article suggests a new purpose for the canon of Shakespeare: it was an instrument in the political battle being waged by the Jesuits and other Catholics to turn the kingdom of England back to Catholicism or toward religious toleration. The article in effect requires the scholarly community to take a fresh look at what exactly Shakespeare was attempting to impart through his plays. The article is also important, because it points out that, while Shakespeare was clearly familiar with some Jesuit writing widely publicized in England at the time, the political and pastoral goals of the Jesuit mission found in The Tempest, as well as aspects of Ignatian spirituality, indicate that such nuanced knowledge could only have come from the Jesuits themselves, establishing relationship.

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