"In sixteenth-century England many loyal subjects to the crown were asked to make a terrible choice: serve their monarch or their God. The schism between the Crown and the Catholic Church had widened from a theological dispute in the reign of Henry VIII to bitter political conflict under Elizabeth I. It was also the era of the greatest creative genius the world has ever known: William Shakespeare. How, then, was it possible that such a remarkable man born into such violently volatile times should apparently make no comment about the state of England in his work? He did. But it was hidden." "Clare Asquith traces the common code used covertly by dissident writers in the sixteenth century to discuss the tribulations of their time, and reveals that the acknowledged master of this forgotten art form was William Shakespeare. Constantly attacking and exposing a regime that he believed had seized illegal control of the country he loved, Shakespeare's work, seen from this new perspective, offers a revelatory insight into the politics and personalities of his era."--BOOK JACKET.