What is the relation between the language being heard and the picture being simultaneously exhibited on the stage? Typically there is an identity between sound and sight, but often there is a divergence between what the audience hears and what is sees. These divergences are 'insets' and examines the motives, mechanics and poetic qualities of these narrative poems embedded in the plays.
First published in 1951. The edition reprints the second, updated, edition, of 1977. When first published this book quickly established itself as the standard survey of Shakespeare's imagery considered as an integral part of the development of Shakespeare's dramatic art. By illustrating, through the use of examples the progressive stages of Shakespeare's use of imagery, and in relating it to the structure, style and subject matter of the plays, the book throws new light on the dramatist's creative genius. The second edition includes a new preface and an up-to-date bibliography.
This bibliography will give comprehensive coverage to published commentary in English on Shakespeare and the Classical Tradition during the period from 1961-1985. Doctoral dissertations will also be included. Each entry will provide a clear and detailed summary of an item's contents. For pomes and plays based directly on classical sources like Antony and Cleopatra and The Rape of Lucrece, virtually all significant scholarly work during the period covered will be annotated. For other works such as Hamlet, any scholarship that deals with classical connotations will be annotated. Any other bibliographies used in the compiling of this volume will be described with emphasis on their value to a student of Shakespeare and the Classics.
Originally published in 1989, this book focuses on the handling of the relationship between the onstage world and the offstage world, between the world that Shakespeare shows us and the one he tells us about. It is developed in two parts. Initially examined is the way reports are used in Shakespeare to relate the offstage and onstage worlds, building from simple examples within individual scenes in various plays to related sequences of reports which can be evaluated as part of broader strategies effecting the structure of a whole play. In the second part the author examines the ways in which several, or all, of these strategies work in individual plays, and what combined effect the prominent employment of them has in shaping the effect of the plays. In all cases the author is concerned to indicate why Shakespeare chose to handle matters as he does rather than in other ways available in the sources or in the speculative alternative methods which can be imaginatively constructed.
This edition first published in 1962. The Shakespeare Claimants is a critical survey of the great controversy that has raged over the authorship of the Shakespearean plays. It provides the general reader with an outline history of this controversy and with a full description and analysis of the main anti-Stratfordian arguments. This book concentrates on the four main claimants: Bacon, Oxford, Derby and Marlowe. The book contains an extensive bibliography and footnotes to guide the reader through the text.
The book is a compilation of different erudite articles already published by the author in various scholarly journals and other edited volumes. The essays are a study and an enquiry into a variety of dramaturgical methods and processes that contribute to the theatrical dynamics of the Shakespeare plays. All the articles are concerned with the art of playmaking, with an examination of the tools and devices used by Shakespeare which contribute to the dramatic life of the play but also articulate the moral and sociocultural ideas of the time. There has not been much critical work in this area before and the book is one of the first of its kind. The book unravels the function and effect of many poetic, rhetorical, topological, visual and theatrical devices which Shakespeare exploits in his plays for a dramatic effect. Together, the essays present an idea of the multidimensional totality of theatre language and communication which Shakespeare achieves through a masterful orchestration of dramatic resources. The book will be of immense value to students, scholars and researchers in the fields of theatre techniques and art, literature in general and drama in particular.
Editors of Shakespeare's Complete Works must decide what to include. Although not in the First Folio collection of 1623, The Two Noble Kinsmen and Edward III have now entered the canon as plays co-authored by Shakespeare. Determining the Shakespeare Canon makes the case for lifting Arden of Faversham, first published in 1592, over the same threshold. A wealth of evidence indicates that Shakespeare was wholly or largely responsible for several of its central scenes (constituting Act III in editions divided into acts), and that the domestic tragedy can thus be added to the mounting list of his dramatic collaborations. Shakespeare's beginnings as a playwright are due for reconsideration. The second half of this volume provides solid grounds for accepting that publisher Thomas Thorpe's inclusion of A Lover's Complaint within the 1609 quarto of Shakespeare Sonnets was justified. While A Lover's Complaint has long been part of the Shakespeare canon, according to most editors, the poem's authenticity has been vigorously challenged in recent years. Its status is crucial to how critics assess the authority of the quarto's ordering of sonnets and interpret the structure of the sequence as a whole. These two problems of attribution are each addressed in five separate chapters that describe the converging results of different approaches and rebut counter-arguments. Stylometric techniques, using the resources of computers and electronic databases, are applied and the research methodologies of other scholars explained and evaluated. Quantitative tests are supplemented with traditional literary-critical analysis.
This 14-volume set contains titles originally published between 1926 and 1992. An eclectic mix, this collection examines Shakespeare’s work from a number of different perspectives, looking at history, language, performance and more it includes references to many of his plays as well as his sonnets.
First published in 1972. Studying Shakespeare's 'art of preparation', this book illustrates the relationship between the techniques of preparation and the structure and theme of the plays. Other essays cover Shakespeare's use of the messenger's report, his handling of the theme of appearance and reality and the basic characteristics of Shakespearian drama.
