The 'disciplines of war': Elizabethan war manuals and Shakespeare’s tragicomic vision

This chapter explores the genre of war manuals in the late sixteenth century and shows the use that Shakespeare made of William Garrard's The Art of War (1591) in Henry V, Othello and other plays. In particular the essay looks at the law and practice of siege, and examines the ways in which Shakespeare's dramaturgy raises questions about the whole concept of 'just' war