Though often spoken of as the greatest writing of the English Renaissance, Shakespeare’s plays are both shaped by and directly comment on medieval literature, history, and culture in profound ways which are frequently overlooked. “Shakespeare and the Middle Ages” examines significant Shakespearean plays in light of these medieval connections. The course examines Shakespeare’s Comedies in the context of their medieval literary sources, his History plays in light of Tudor views of the recent medieval past, and his Tragedies in the context of medieval beliefs and cosmologies which, if no longer wholly credited, continued to hover (like King Hamlet’s ghost) on the periphery of belief in early modern England.