30 Jul 2017

Elizabethan Society was Riddled with Informers and Spies

From Standing Room Only, 2:25 pm on 30 July 2017
Dr. Bill Angus, School of English and Media Studies at Massey University.

Dr. Bill Angus, School of English and Media Studies at Massey University. Photo: supplied

Even today, surveillance is a provocative topic and we tend to think about cameras or cyber-spying, but a new book exposes just how prevalent spies and informers were in Shakespeare's time - both in his plays and indeed everyday life.

Dr. Bill Angus, a lecturer at Massey University's School of English and Media Studies has been exploring the role of spies and informers in the scripts and society of the Bard and his contemporaries in his new book, Metadrama and the Informer in Shakespeare and Jonson.