Pseudopopular

One must especially be alert, moreover, to distinguish popular materials, whether literary or nonliterary, from a kind of “pseudopopular” based on the current marketing of the Renaissance, through star-system phenomena like Kenneth Branagh and theme park-style Renaissance festivals.

To us, the final step of Richard's coup, the pseudopopular offer of the crown, looks like a grand display of theatrical fireworks. But to the gullible spectators-within-the play, it is a political bludgeoning.