Offers an approach to evaluating the psychological 'loss' of the Virgin Mary in post-Reformation England by illustrating how, in the wake of Mary's demotion, re-inscriptions of her roles and meanings only proliferated, seizing hold of national imagination and resulting in configurations of masculinity.

Introduction; Chapter 1 “England, Mary’s Dowry”; Chapter 2 Marian Intercession and Intercessory Promiscuity in The Merchant of Venice and Measure for Measure; Chapter 3 Virgins, Mothers, and the Virgin Mother in Hamlet, Othello, and King Lear; Chapter 4 Marian Miracles and the Theatrical Wonder of Antony and Cleopatra, Pericles, and The Winter’s Tale; Chapter 101 Afterword;

'Ruben Espinosa's eloquent and sensitive study of nine of Shakespeare's plays, from an early history through the late Romances, makes a compelling case for how the fracturing of Marian efficacy in post-Reformation England not only influenced the construction of gender in English culture, but also shaped Shakespeare's dramaturgy. ' Katharine Goodland, CUNY College of Staten Island, author Female Mourning and Tragedy in Medieval and Renaissance English Drama 'Persuasively argued, this study confirms what scholars have been slow to recognize - that the Virgin Mary was a powerful presence on the English stage. Although the Virgin May may have been marginalized by Protestant theology and polemic, her potency, comfort, and efficacy could not be erased from the English psyche and was available for reimaging on the early modern English stage.' Renaissance Quarterly '[Espinosa] is careful not to be too reductive; his argument is not one-to-one mapping of Marian symbology, but a careful, nuanced hunt for motifs that both sustain and potentially disrupt conceptions of Protestant, English masculinity.' Sixteenth Century Studies Journal