Reading the River in Shakespeare’s Britain

In Shakespeare's Britain, rivers were not only a crucial form of travel and important natural resources which sustained communities and provided employment, but were also sites to which myths and memories accrued. They could be used to figure religious ideas of cleansing and the waters of life.

Pageants were performed on them, legends grew up about their names, and plays and poems were written about personified river gods and goddesses. Stories were told of historic battles which had been fought on their banks.

These essays explore the cultural and literary geography of rivers in the early modern period and the ways in which they shaped the lives and identities of those who lived near them. By charting changes (both manmade and natural) to the way in which rivers ebb and flow, the book also reminds us of the urgency of the climate crisis.