ABSTRACT
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.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part |13 pages
Introduction
part |72 pages
Early Plays
chapter |3 pages
The Comedy of Errors
chapter |2 pages
The Two Gentlemen of Verona
chapter |3 pages
The Taming of the Shrew
chapter |2 pages
Titus Andronicus
chapter |8 pages
Henry VI: Parts 1–3
chapter |6 pages
Richard III
chapter |8 pages
Romeo and Juliet
chapter |20 pages
Richard II
chapter |11 pages
A Midsummer-Night's Dream
chapter |1 pages
Love's Labour's Lost
chapter |8 pages
King John
part |72 pages
Comedies and Histories
chapter |5 pages
The Merchant of Venice
chapter |12 pages
Henry IV: Parts 1–2
chapter |3 pages
The Merry Wives of Windsor
chapter |7 pages
Henry V
chapter |3 pages
Much Ado about Nothing
chapter |9 pages
Julius Caesar
chapter |7 pages
As you Like it
chapter |9 pages
Twelfth Night
chapter |17 pages
Troilus and Cressida
part |94 pages
Tragic Period
chapter |12 pages
Hamlet
chapter |4 pages
All's Well That Ends Well
chapter |8 pages
Measure for Measure
chapter |14 pages
Othello
chapter |12 pages
King Lear
chapter |10 pages
Macbeth
chapter |2 pages
Timon of Athens
chapter |18 pages
Antony and Cleopatra
chapter |14 pages
Coriolanus
part |37 pages
Last Plays