In Shakespeare and the Popular Voice Annabel Patterson challenges as counter--intuitive the common opinion that Shakespeare was anti--democratic, contemptuous of the crowd and an unfailing supporter of Elizabethan social hierarchy.

In Shakespeare and the Popular Voice Annabel Patterson challenges as counter-intuitive the common opinion that Shakespeare was anti-democratic, contemptuous of the crowd and an unfailing supporter of Elizabethan social hierarchy. She shows that this view was constructed in the 19th century and rendered influential especially by Coleridge, as part of his anti-Jacobian propaganda. In fact Shakespeare engaged throughout his career in a structural analysis and critique which reached its apex in Coriolanus.

Using unread or under-interpreted contemporary documents and situating her analysis in relation t the most recent theories of popular culture and popular protest Annabel Patterson offers a breakthrough account of seven plays, from Henry VI part two to The Tempest; and she also stakes out a strong position in current debates on humanism, the relation of culture to society, and the place of the subject as author.