Synopses & Reviews
Providing a unique combination of well-written, up-to-date background information and intriguing selections from primary documents, The Bedford Companion to Shakespeare introduces students to the topics most important to the study of Shakespeare in their full historical and cultural context.
About the Author
RUSS McDONALD (Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania) is the editor of four plays in the revised Pelican series of Shakespeare's plays and the author of Shakespeare Reread (1994), Shakespeare and Jonson/Jonson and Shakespeare (1988), and numerous articles on early modern theater, comedy, and opera. A celebrated teacher, McDonald has taught at Mississippi State University, the University of Hawaii, and the University of Rochester. He has been actively involved with the NEH-sponsored Teaching Shakespeare Institute at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., and he has also served as resident scholar, head scholar, and institute director of Teaching Shakespeare's Language.
Table of Contents
Preface To the Reader
Introduction
Shakespeare in Our Time
The Uses of a Companion
The Illustrations and Documents
Three Troublesome Topics: Terminology, Modernization, and Money
A Final Word
Chapter 1. Shakespeare, "Shakespeare," and the Problem of Authorship
Early Life
London: The First Decade
London: Maturity
Retirement
The Anti-Stratfordians
What Is an Author?
Illustrations and Documents
The House Known as Shakespeare's Birthplace
Record of Shakespeare's Baptism
Map of Stratford-upon-Avon (Eighteenth Century)
Francis Meres, From Palladis Tamia: Wit's Treasury
*A Plague Bill
The Royal License for Shakespeare's Company
Detail from the "Agas" Map of London (With Shakespeare's Lodging Indicated)
John Ward, Vicar of Stratford, From His Diary
2. "To What End Are All These Words?": Shakespeare's Dramatic Language
Early Modern English
Rhetoric
Wordplay
The Forms of Dramatic Language
Language as Theme
Illustrations and Documents
*Erasmus, From the Foreword to the Third Edition of the Latin New Testament
Thomas Wilson, From The Art of Rhetoric
*Samuel Daniel, From Musophilis
Roger Ascham, From The Schoolmaster
*Ralph Lever, From The Art of Reason
George Puttenham, From The Art of English Poesy
Baldassare Castiglione, From The Book of the Courtier
*Montaigne, Of the Vanity of Words (Tr. John Florio)
Chart of the Relative Proportions of Poetry and Prose in Shakespeare's Plays
3. Theater