Who Was William Shakespeare?

Note on the Text ix
 
Acknowledgments xi
 
Part I The Life 1
 
1 Who was William Shakespeare? 3
 
2 Writing 23
 
3 Religion 47
 
4 Status 61
 
5 Theatre 79
 
Part II The Plays 97
 
6 Comedies: Shakespeare's Social Life 99
 
The Comedy of Errors 99
 
The Taming of the Shrew 108
 
Love's Labour's Lost 119
 
A Midsummer Night's Dream 125
 
The Merchant of Venice 132
 
Much Ado About Nothing 138
 
As You Like It 146
 
Twelfth Night, Or What You Will 153
 
Measure for Measure 159
 
7 English and Roman Histories: Shakespeare's Politics 177
 
Richard II 177
 
1 Henry IV 182
 
Henry V 192
 
Richard III 198
 
Julius Caesar 204
 
Coriolanus 210
 
8 Tragedies: Shakespeare in Love and Loss 223
 
Romeo and Juliet 223
 
Hamlet 232
 
Othello 241
 
King Lear 252
 
Macbeth 260
 
Antony and Cleopatra 266
 
9 Romances: Shakespeare and Theatrical Magic 277
 
The Winter's Tale 277
 
The Tempest 284
 
Index 295

Dympna Callaghan is William L. Safire Professor of Modern Letters at Syracuse University and President of the Shakespeare Association of America, 2012-13. She is the editor of the Arden Shakespeare Language and Writing Series and co-editor, with Michael Dobson of the Palgrave Shakespeare Studies series. Her publications include Shakespeare Without Women (2000), The Taming of the Shrew: A Norton Critical Edition (2009), Shakespeare's Sonnets (2007), The Impact of Feminism in English Renaissance Culture (2006), and Romeo and Juliet: Texts and Contexts (2003).

"The book should interest readers who are curious about Shakespeare's life and the social and political history of England. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers." ( Choice , 1 August 2013)

"[A] highly readable introduction to the Life and Works, in the best tradition of that ancient and worthy genre. It is furthermore a piece of New Historical criticism at its sober best ... With such impressive scholarly credentials, [Callaghan] is more than well equipped to provide original and perceptive introductions to Shakespeare's life and works. But this is no mere mechanical life-and-works primer, like the dozens already available on the market and on college bookshop shelves ... This [is a] substantial work of criticism, presented as an introduction to Shakespeare the man and his work, but amounting to considerably more than mere introduction. Dympna Callaghan meets admirably the challenge she set herself in the bold question of the title: who was William Shakespeare? For she shows us very well indeed who he was - and is - and why."(Cercles, 1 June 2014)
 
Featured in Times Literary Supplement - 25 October 2013
"Dympna Callaghan's lucid and well-structured textbook allows students to see the plays in their context." (Times Literary Supplement, 25 October 2013)
"The book should interest readers who are curious about Shakespeare's life and the social and political history of England. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers." (Choice, 1 August 2013)