Reading the Coastline in Shakespeare’s Britain

When Regan in King Lear asks ‘Wherefore to Dover?’ she mobilises a number of early modern anxieties. Shores and coastlines are liminal spaces, subject to erosion, invasion and tidal flux. With their metaphorical mouths and their subjection to wind, wave and tide, ports were emblematic of instability, especially in the cases of once-thriving harbours which had silted up (Winchelsea) or coastal settlements claimed by the sea (Dunwich). Early modern plays and poems are drawn to such areas both within Britain (Southampton and Harfleur in Henry V, Scarborough and Bristol in Edward II, Harlech in Richard II) and further afield in Tunis, Alexandria, Algiers, Malta and other sites where cultures clashed, slaves were traded, and people of different faiths mingled. This edited collection draws together new research on early modern British representations of the lived environment of the coast at home and abroad.

Bill Angus is pursuing a rich and varied life in New Zealand. Previous publications include Reading the River in Shakespeare’s Britain (2024) and Reading the Road, from Shakespeare’s Crossways to Bunyan’s Highways (2019) both co-edited with Lisa Hopkins and published by Edinburgh University Press. His latest book, Divorcing Jesus (2025) maps a moral and intellectual path from the ruins of Christianity towards the ideal of Atheism. Lisa Hopkins is Professor Emerita of English at Sheffield Hallam University and co-editor of Shakespeare, the journal of the British Shakespeare Association. Previous publications include Reading the River in Shakespeare’s Britain (2024) and Reading the Road, from Shakespeare’s Crossways to Bunyan’s Highways (2019) both co-edited with Bill Angus and published by Edinburgh University Press.