Pearce-ing the mystery of Shakespeare, "safe" Catholic
Joseph Pearce talks to Carrie Gress of ZENIT about his recently published book, 
The Quest for Shakespeare (Ignatius, 2008):
Q: As a Catholic and an Englishman, what kind of new research and insights were you able to bring together what you call the jigsaw puzzle of Shakespeare's Catholic life?
Pearce: I believe that my position as a Catholic Englishman has assisted me greatly in my research on Shakespeare's Catholicism. I know my country's history and was very "at home" in the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods that are the subject of my book.
The chief value of my book is that it assembles the vast wealth of evidence within the pages of a single volume. Prior to the publication of "The Quest for Shakespeare" it was necessary to read many separate works in order to assemble all the pieces of the jigsaw together. Now all the pieces are available in one place!
As for new insights, I believe that my book contains a number of such insights, interpreting the evidence in a way that has not been done previously. Perhaps the most obvious way in which my insights differ from those of most other scholars of Shakespeare's Catholicism is my belief that he was considered to be a "safe" Catholic by Queen Elizabeth and King James. I believe that his Catholicism was not unknown but was an open secret, which was tolerated by the powers-that-be.
• Will the Real Shakespeare Please
Stand Up? | Joseph Pearce | The opening chapter of
The Quest for Shakespeare.
• Finding Shakespeare and Reclaiming the Classics | Joseph Pearce
• The Quest for Shakespeare website
• Ignatius Insight Author Page for Joseph Pearce
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