Kenneth Muir

This edition first published in 1960. This book discusses the extent of Shakespeare's collaboration in the plays of Edward III, The Two Noble Kinsmen, Pericles and the lost Cardenio. It includes chapters on the dramatic value of the plays irrespective of authorship.

Shakespeare as Collaborator

The first fifty volumes of this yearbook of Shakespeare studies are being reissued in paperback.

Shakespeare Survey

Originally published in 1984. With selections organised chronologically, this collection presents the best writing on one of Shakespeare’s most studied plays. The structure displays the changing responses to the play and includes a wide range of criticism from the likes of Coleridge, Hazlitt, Moulton, Granville-Barker, Orwell, Levin, Stampfer, Gardner and Speaight interspersed with short entries from Keats, Raleigh, Freud and others. The final chapter by the editor elucidates his own thoughts on Lear, building on his commentary in the Introduction which puts the collection in context.

Critical Essays

King Lear

A Reassessment

John Keats

First published in 1970, the introduction distinguishes between the Comedy of Manners and other types of comedy and traces its origins in English and French literature, then chapters on the major writers - Etherege, Dryden, Wycherly, Congreve, Vanbrugh, Farquhar - and on Jeremy Collier's attack on the immorality and profaneness of the plays.

The Comedy of Manners

Philip Edwards

Contains scholarly articles examining various elements of William Shakespeare's tragedy "Macbeth."

Aspects of Macbeth

First published in 1957. This book finds discovers what the sources to Shakespeare's Comedies and Tragedies really were, considers the dramatic reasons for Shakespeare's departure from them and provides many examples of the way in which he made use of his general reading for particular scenes and speeches. Kenneth Muir shows that Shakespeare frequently uses more than one source and sometimes as many as eight.

Comedies and Tragedies

Shakespeare's Sources

The emphasis of this book is that each of Shakespeare's tragedies demanded its own individual form and that although certain themes run through most of the tragedies, nearly all critics refrain from the attempt to apply external rules to them.

Shakespeare's Tragic Sequence

Allardyce Nicoll

An annual survey of Shakespearian study and production.

Shakespeare Survey: Volume 27, Shakespeare's Early Tragedies

The Nettle and the Flower, and Other Poems

FOLGER Shakespeare Library THE WORLD'S LEADING CENTER FOR SHAKESPEARE STUDIES "Each edition includes: " - Freshly edited text based on the best early printed version of the play - Full explanatory notes conveniently placed on pages facing the text of the play - Scene-by-scene plot summaries - A key to famous lines and phrases - An introduction to reading Shakespeare's language - An essay by a leading Shakespeare scholar providing a modern perspective on the play - Illustrations from the Folger Shakespeare Library's vast holdings of rare books "Essay by" Stephen Orgel The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., is home to the world's largest collection of Shakespeare's printed works, and a magnet for Shakespeare scholars from around the globe. In addition to exhibitions open to the public throughout the year, the Folger offers a full calendar of performances and programs.

The Winter's Tale; a Casebook

Shakespeare

Stanley Wells

These articles, reprinted from various volumes of Shakespeare Survey, concern three plays which have gradually become appreciated by critics and in the theatre. Since the early years of this century they have been seen as an interrelated group, with a peculiarly twentieth-century appeal. Measure for Measure, concerned as it is with adolescents' first encounters with sex, love and death, has a special appeal for young people; Troilus and Cressida, set in the Trojan War, has been found deeply relevant to our own war-troubled times; and All's Well That Ends Well, sharing these preoccupations, is a necessary companion piece. John Barton, who has directed all three plays, is interviewed in one of the articles, which together illustrate the often heated controversy about the plays. Reviews and photographs of post-war productions at Stratford are also included. The book as a whole is designed as a stimulating introduction to these plays and to conflicting interpretations of them.

Articles reprinted from Shakespeare Survey

Aspects of Shakespeare's 'Problem Plays'

First published in 1977. This book ascertains what sources Shakespeare used for the plots of his plays and discusses the use he made of them; and secondly illustrates how his general reading is woven into the texture of his work. Few Elizabethan dramatists took such pains as Shakespeare in the collection of source-material. Frequently the sources were apparently incompatible, but Shakespeare's ability to combine a chronicle play, one or two prose chronicles, two poems and a pastoral romance without any sense of incongruity, was masterly. The plays are examined in approximately chronological order and Shakespeare's developing skill becomes evident.

Kenneth Muir

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