Shakespeare's Bawdy

Eric Partridge is always a fine scholar of words. His glossary of words that Will Shakespeare used, and what Will actually meant by those words, is fascinating. Understand Will better! I do have another book about the same subject, titled "Naughty Shakespeare". The only thing that I noticed in the "Naughty..." book that Partridge didn't mention or maybe didn't know about, was that Shakespeare's street audience really understood what "Much Ado About Nothing" is *really* about. His street audience knew that men do carry "something" between their legs; but women carry "nothing" there. So there's your naughty lesson for the day about one of Will's most performed plays. Sorry if that story is offensive to some people. But you probably wouldn't have read it if you were not intersted in Shakespeare's "Bawdy" :=)) Bob Powers

The head of our English Department in college was an expert on Shakespeare's bawdy. This was one of the books he had us read. When his classes attended a Shakespeare play, you could always spot us in the audience. We were the ones laughing at the dirty jokes!

Modern well-annotated editions of Shakespeare (like those in the New Cambridge, Oxford, or Arden series) often explain bawdy usages in Shakespeare which today's reader cannot - yet should - understand. Even so, this area is still often comparatively weak in current commentaries, and this classic provides a great deal of help to the reader who wishes to know more. For a reader who does not use annotated editions at all, the glossary is yet more useful, though such a reader will often not even begin to think about instances of bawdy which would have been readily apparent and intelligible to an Elizabethan. Much does not get explained in Partridge: in that case a curious reader will often find the relevant exposition in Gordon Williams's *A Dictionary of Sexual Language and Imagery in Shakespearean and Stuart Literature*. However, as that is an expensive and difficult-to-use book, many readers would still serve themselves well by buying Partridge's guide. - Joost Daalder, Professor of English, Flinders University, South Australia

"Shakespeare's Bawdy" is a classic of its kind. What else would you expect from Partridge? This wee paperback is indispensible, and has yet to be bettered. Think you know all of Shakespeare's puns? Think again!