The Day Shakespeare Died

There are two reasons to rejoice at the publication of this new edition of Hugh Ross Williamson’s important work on the evidence for Shakespeare’s Catholicism. The first is its restoration of the author to his rightful place in the Catholic cultural conversation, a place he held for a full forty years from the 1930s to the 1970s; the second is the restoration of the present volume to its rightful place in the scholarly conversation on the nature and importance of Shakespeare’s faith. —Joseph Pearce, from the Foreword

Hugh Ross Williamson led a very full life, being at different times, a journalist, editor, Anglican clergyman, historian, playwright, political critic, and a prominent Catholic layman. The prolific author of over sixty books, he compared and contrasted wide-ranging important issues, notably the lives of the Saints, and the period of the Elizabethan reformation. He was often ahead of his time, for example in his recognition of the greatness of T. S. Eliot; the collusion surrounding the Gunpowder Plot; and the claim in the present book that Shakespeare was a Catholic. Whatever the subject, it was tackled head on with a refreshing style and substance. —John Beaumont, author of The House with a Hundred Gates: Catholic Converts Through the Ages (Angelico Press)

The Day Shakespeare Died weaves together the slim biographical facts we know about the enigmatic Bard of Avon, with clues from his poetry and plays, the political and religious details and the court gossip and intrigue, to shed light on the vexed question of Shakespeare’s religion. Williamson shows how Shakespeare's friendships and deep family connections to Catholicism are interwoven with the Machiavellian machinations during the Tudor Terror. A classic of Shakespeare scholarship, The Day Shakespeare Died is an accessible, absorbing and convincing read. —Fr. Dwight Longenecker, dramatist, blogger, author of There and Back Again: A Somewhat Religious Odyssey (Ignatius Press) and twenty other books on Catholic apologetics, faith and culture.

Among the great many brilliant intellectual converts of the twentieth century, Hugh Ross Williamson occupies a special place as a master of English history and literature. In the present work, Williamson brings to bear his formidable power of intuition and careful eye for detail as he dismisses false legends and probes the faith of England's greatest poet. May its republication contribute to the ongoing rehabilitation of the Catholic Shakespeare. —Dr. Peter Kwasniewski