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Christ and controversy. The person of Christ in Nonconformist thought and ecclesial experience, 1600–2000 . By Alan P. F. Sell. Pp. xii+217. Eugene, Or: Pickwick Publications, 2011. $25 (paper). 978 1 61097 669 5

Spufford and Tessa Watt). Swift states that ‘critical attention to the apparent religiosity of Shakespeare’s plays has always left out the Book of Common Prayer’ (p. ), despite the fact that the classic text in this field is Richmond Noble’s Shakespeare’s biblical knowledge and the use of the Book of Common Prayer (). This work has now been superseded by Naseeb Shaheen’s excellent Biblical references in Shakespeare’s plays (), a work which Swift only references in his text when he feels that Shaheen ignores the Book of Common Prayer (pp. , ). Swift uses these moments to imply a larger absence: ‘The prayer book is a curiously forgotten work, overlooked even by those who might be expected to know it’ (p. ). In fact Shaheen gives around  examples of Shakespearean allusions to the Book of Common Prayer and is far more attentive to what he calls ‘the most cherished monument of the English Church’ than Swift allows. Shaheen notes, for example, the link between Macbeth’s ‘Man that’s born of woman’ and the burial service (which Swift explores so well) but also notes (which Swift does not) that Lady Macbeth’s death – ‘The queen. . . Died every day she liv’d’ (IV.iii.–) – likewise contains an allusion to a biblical passage which formed part of the burial service. Swift’s argument, however, does not need to underplay the achievements of others in order to justify itself. Despite Shaheen’s magisterial catalogue, Swift is quite correct in his belief that the importance of the Prayer Book has been understated. For most critics it has remained inert, while its unique status as a text which marks both the daily rhythms of life, and the shape of life itself, makes it a peculiarly rich source for Shakespeare’s texts. As Swift states ‘it is a work of and about human time, both a record and a template’ (p. ) and he does an excellent service in reinvigorating the Prayer Book as a critical subject for Shakespeare studies.