Introducing Shakespeare

This small introductory volume discusses materials for understanding Shakespeare's life,the Shakespeare legend, the Elizabethan theatre, his company, the editing of the work,the modern view of Shakespeare,the Shakespeare canon,the development of Shakespeare's style. It is by a very well- known and distinguished Shakespeare scholar. I took particular pleasure from his tracing of Shakespeare's stylistic development , how he moved from awkwardness to word- mastery and play to adjusting speech to character to rich thematic development to a kind of masterful art in which character, speech, language, theme , meaning are all combined and expressed in the most overpowering way. Harrison concludes his study on Shakespeare's style with noting that the 'Tempest' contains Shakespeare's true final word to us.

The works of Shakespeare collected in a household are symbols of English culture. In Shakespeare's day the stage was not respectable. Dryden deemed Shakespeare naturally learned. In 1709 Shakespeare was established as a classic by Nathanael Rowe. Pope praised him lavishly. Dr. Johnson wrote his famous preface to Shakespeare. To Coleridge Shakespeare was an emanation of the Godhead. The life of Shakespeare is constructed from documents, tradition, literary references, and his work. All writers betray their origin. In 1592, age 28, William Shakespeare emerged as a person in English life. Henslowe's DIARY 1592-1602 gives a pretty good account of theater conditions. From 1594 Shakespeare belonged to the Lord Chamberlain's Company. In 1603 the company became the King's Players. His burial is recorded in 1616. He was regarded as a great writer from the first. Shakespeare studies may be divided into the scholarly, the litarary and the dramatic. Studies have been made of the texts, punctuation, words and terms, poetic techniques, and readers' responses, appreciation. Harley Granville Barker 1910-1913 had the plays acted just as they were written. Greene, Kyd and Marlowe had all died by 1594. For a short time Shakespeare was the only dramatist with a reputation. Drama is most imediately affected by material circumstances. The average life of a new play was about 10 performances. The Elizabethan actor was a busy man. The company was a fellowship of players. They worked in a share system. There is a list of the plays with approximate dates and a discussion of the measures taken to establish the Shakespeare canon. In style the best and worst of Shakespeare's immature style appears in ROMEO AND JULIET. THE MERCHANT OF VENICE, two years later, is more advanced. In the first part of HENRY IV he shows he is a master fo the medium. LEAR, 1606, shows concentration of thought in its language. In MACBETH imagery is thickly clotted. ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA, 1607, has a sort of resonance. Some see THE TEMPEST as the final and greatest play. In editing the editor's worst difficulties come when there are two or more early texts. The book is simple and enlightening. The author is a great scholar of Shakespeare and provides a nice overview of the field.