ISBN10: 0710081006, ISBN13: 9780710081001, [publisher: Taylor & Francis Group.] Hardcover SHAKESPEARE'S LAST PLAYSDr Frances Yates is well known for her brilliant and illuminating studies on Renaissance iconography and symbolism and on the Hermetic tradition. In this new book she brings many years of research to bear on Shakespearean problems, with startlingly original results. Dr Yates relates the imagery of the last plays to the revival of the Elizabethan idea around Prince Henry and Princess Elizabeth, children of James I.The new approach brings out Shakespeare's sympathy with this movement and makes possible a new interpretation of Cymbeline through relating its imagery to the revival of Tudor mythology. The influence of the Tudor imperial reform is traced in Henry VIII, expanded in the direction of religious toleration. And in the study of magic in the last plays, a new significance for Prospero emerges, as representing a revival of respect for a Magus-figure, such as John Dee had been in the Elizabethan age. The magical-mystical atmosphere of the last plays is compared with that of the Rosicrucian movement in Germany with which it is suggested that Shakespeare was in sympathy. New light is also directed on Ben Jonson's attitude to Shakespeare.The book connects closely with two of Dr Yates's previous works, Astraea and The Rosicrucian Enlightenment, and it suggests entirely new and exciting routes into the understanding of ...