1st Edition

William Shakespeare The Critical Heritage Volume 1 1623-1692

Edited By Brian Vickers Copyright 1974

    The Critical Heritage gathers together a large body of critical sources on major figures in literature. Each volume presents contemporary responses to a writer's work, enabling students and researchers to read for themselves, for example, comments on early performances of Shakespeare's plays, or reactions to the first publication of Jane Austen's novels. The carefully selected sources range from landmark essays in the history of criticism to journalism and contemporary opinion, and little published documentary material such as letters and diaries. Significant pieces of criticism from later periods are also included, in order to demonstrate the fluctuations in an author's reputation.<BR> Each volume contains an introduction to the writer's published works, a selected bibliography, and an index of works, authors and subjects. The Collected Critical Heritage set will be available as a set of 68 volumes and the series will also be available in mini sets selected by period (in slipcase boxes) and as individual volumes.

    Introduction; Note on the Text; 1: Ben Jonson on Shakespeare; 2: Leonard Digges, commendatory verses; 3: Abraham Wright on Othello and Hamlet; 4: Samuel Pepys on Shakespeare in the theatre; 5: Sir William D'Avenant, from hisadaptation of Measure for Measure with Much Ado; 6: Margaret Cavendish on Shakespeare's wit; 7: Richard Flecknoe, from A Short Discourse of the English Stage; 8: Sir William D' Avenant, from his adaptation of Macbeth; 9: Sir William D'Avenant and John Dryden, from their adaptation of The Tempest; 10: John Dryden, from An Essay of Dramatick Poesie; 11: John Dryden?, prologue to Julius Cæsar; 12: John Dryden on the Jacobean dramatists; 13: Thomas Shadwell?,from the operatic verSIon of The Tempest adaptation; 14: John Dryden, from All For Love; 15: Thomas Rymer, from The Tragedies of the Last Age; 16: John Dryden, Heads of an Answer to Rymer; 17: Thomas Shadwell, from his adaptation of Timon of Athens; 18. Edward Ravenscroft, from his adaptation of Titus Andronicus; 19: John Dryden, from his adaptation of Troilus and Cressida; 20: Thomas Otway, from his adaptation of Romeo and Juliet; Nahum Tate, from his adaptation of Richard II; 22: Nahum Tate on Shakespeare's learning; 23: Nahum Tate, from his adaptation of King Lear; 24: Nahum Tate, from his adaptation of Coriolanus; 25: Thomas D'Urfey, from his adaptation of Cymbeline; 26: Robert Gould, from The Play-House. A Satyr; 27: Gerard Langbaine, from An Account of the English Dramatick Poets; 28: Elkanah Settle?, from the operatic adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream

    Biography

    Brian Vickers