| Description |
xix, 612 pages : 30 illustrations ; 24 cm |
| Contents |
I. Materials for a life -- The Shakespeares of Warwickshire -- The Burgher of Stratford -- The Player and the Playwright of London -- End of the Line -- Green [Robert] and Chettle [Henry] -- Reputation -- Shakespeare Canon -- II. Shakespeare of the legends : the first biographers -- Shakespeare's epitaphs -- Relics and Associations -- Traditions of writing and acting -- Shakespeare and the Vintner : .. versus Jonson [Ben] -- and the Davenants [Sir William Davenant] -- Personal legends : youth and education -- the Deer-poacher -- the Toper -- Legends of Shakespeare's maturity -- death and burial -- Shakespeare's faith -- Legends of books and manuscripts, the malediction -- First biographical notices -- Nicholas Rowe -- The Tribe of Nicolas -- III. Edmond Malone -- The Rise of bardolatry -- Farmer [Richard] and Shakespeare's learning -- Stratford Jubilee -- Malone : the making of a scholar ... the Supplement and other writings .. the 1790 Shakespeare -- Stratford visitors -- William -- Henry Ireland, the first impositions -- Ireland, the major impositions -- Malone's "Inquiry" -- Postscript : George Chalmers -- Malone : the posthumous life |
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IV. Earlier Nineteenth century [19th] -- Romantics ; [Robert Bell] Wheler and [Nathan] Drake -- [James] Boaden and the Sonnets -- Various pictures -- [William] Gifford and the Mermaid Club -- [Charles] Severn and Ward's Diary [Rev. John Ward] -- Various Lives ; Encyclopedias -- The Peele Letter and Fenton's Tour [George Peele, Richard Fenton] -- J. Payne Collier -- a Forger's Progress ; Exposure -- Joseph Hunter -- V. Victorians -- A Victorian Popularizer ; Knight's Shakespere [Charles Knight] -- Halliwell[-Phillips] : the Cambridge manuscripts affair ; Achievements of an Antiquary ; the last years -- Alexander Dyce -- American and continental biographies -- Sonnets : Divers theories -- Oscar Wilde .. Samuel Butler .. Dark Lady and Rival Poet -- Faith and works -- Masks, bones, and portraits -- Arnold and Bagehot -- Other amateurs ; New Shakespeare Society -- Edward Dowden .. Georg Brandes .. Sir Sidney Lee: DNB -- Lee's Shakespeare -- VI. Deviations -- Delia Bacon -- First Unbelievers -- Representative Baconians -- Repercussions : Dr. Owen ... Elisabeth Gallup ... Other cryptanalysts ... Groupists -- Looney and the Oxfordians -- [Sigmund] Freud ... other claimants |
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VII. Twentieth Century -- Elton and Masson [Charles Isaac Elton, David Masson] -- Charlotte Carmichael Stopes -- The Wallaces [Charles William and Hulda Alfreda Wallace] -- Joseph Gray -- The Grafton Portrait -- Lytton Strachey ... Frank Harris ... Harris vs. Shaw -- Studies Mad and Bad -- Dark Ladies -- Edgar I. Fripp .. Joseph Quincy Adams ... Smart and Alexander -- E.K. Chambers -- John Dover Wilson -- Shakespeare's mythical sorrows -- Aspects of Shakespeare -- Leslie Hotston -- Journey to the Unconscious -- Pop biography -- Journey's End |
| Summary |
Schoenbaum's study of the changing images of Shakespeare throughout history broke important new ground; but in the years since this book first appeared many scholars have followed his lead, and Shakespeare studies has progressed by leaps and bounds. Now, Schoenbaum, one of "the heroes of Shakespeare scholarship," according to Wells, has revised and up-dated this classic study of Shakespeare and his biographers, taking account of the most recent scholarship, adding a chapter on "Recent Lives," and abridging certain sections. Schoenbaum takes us on a tour of the countless myths and legends which have arisen to explain the great dramatist's life and work, bringing the story right up to 1989 with the publication of A.L. Rowse's Discovering Shakespeare. In the new edition, the emphasis is on more recent "lives" of Shakespeare, with information culled from such diverse sources as E.A.J. Honigmann's Shakespeare: The "Lost Years" and Richard Ellmann's Oscar Wilde (Wilde's Portrait of Mr W.H. advanced his theory of the Sonnets in fictional form). Besides fanciful theories such as Wilde's, Schoenbaum covers those who have used blatant forgery to construct an imaginary Shakespeare, such as W.H. Ireland and J.P. Collier (the latter would occasionally add his own verse to the Shakespeare canon), and those who have attempted elaborate argumentation to establish the identity of Shakespearean characters (A.L. Rowse claimed to have identified the elusive "Dark Lady" of the Sonnets). From Ben Jonson, whose celebratory verse opens the First Folio of Shakespeare's complete works (published seven years after his death), to Malcolm X, who denied the existence of a historical Shakespeare, Shakespeare's Lives considers virtually the entire legacy of idolatry, heresy, and speculation |
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This volume presents a study of the changing images and differing ways that the life of English poet and playwright William Shakespeare (1564-1616) has been interpreted throughout history. The author takes readers on a tour of the countless myths and legends which have arisen to explain the great dramatist's life and work, bringing the story right up to 1989. He reconstructs as much of the elusive author's life as possible, considering his family history, his economic standing, and his reputation with his peers; the Shakespeare who emerges may not always be the familiar one |
| Analysis |
Biography and autobiography |
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Shakespeare: studies and criticism |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages [569]-598) and index |
| Subject |
Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Biography.
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Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- In literature.
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Biography as a literary form.
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Dramatists, English -- Early modern, 1500-1700 -- Biography -- History and criticism.
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| Genre/Form |
Biographies.
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| LC no. |
91000154 |
| ISBN |
0198186185 |
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