"In the context of Brexit, as the rethinking of Europe and its borders is very much part of an enterprise bound up with memory of conquest, empire, and independence, this is a book that will get students reading, critics thinking, and people talking." Willy Maley, University of Glasgow

Lisa Hopkins is Professor of English at Sheffield Hallam University. She is co-editor of Shakespeare, the journal of the British Shakespeare Association, and of the Arden Early Modern Drama Guides.

Introduction Part One: Legacies "Bisson Conspectuities": Language and National Identity in Shakespeare's Roman Plays Profit and Delight? Magic and the Dreams of a Nation "A Borrowed Blood for Brute": From Britain to England Part Two: Ancestors and Others Queens and the British History Dido in Denmark: Danes and Saxons on the Early Modern English Stage Valiant Welshwomen: When Britain Came Back Athelstan, the Virgin King Conclusion Works Cited