I think that David B.'s colourful account of the Elizabethan capitalist
stage rather misses out on the impact on everyday and cultural life that the
English New Testament had in the period 1500-1600. Access to the Bible in
English had an enormous impact on the spread of literacy. A Royal
Proclamation of 1541 stated that English Bibles should be placed in every
parish church so that everyone could read them. So great was the interest
caused by the appearance of the Bible in English via Tyndale's New Testament
that a Declaration of 1538 tried to stop unlearned people reading and
debating it in taverns and alehouses. Over 200 editions of Holy Scriptures
were produced between 1521 and 1600. [For a fuller account see Greenblatt's
classic Renaissance Self-Fashioning whence cometh these figures,
particularly the chapter entitled The Word of God in the Age of Mechanical
Reproduction.] Greatly amused tho by the idea of Ole Shakey as the
Lloyd-Webber of his day.
cheers
David
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