1st Edition

The Sources of Shakespeare's Plays

By Kenneth Muir Copyright 1977
    330 Pages
    by Routledge

    330 Pages
    by Routledge

    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.

    Part I Introduction; Part II Early Plays; Chapter 1 The Comedy of Errors; Chapter 2 The Two Gentlemen of Verona; Chapter 3 The Taming of the Shrew; Chapter 4 Titus Andronicus; Chapter 5_7 Henry VI: Parts 1–3; Chapter 8 Richard III; Chapter 9 Romeo and Juliet; Chapter 10 Richard II; Chapter 11 A Midsummer-Night’s Dream; Chapter 12 Love’s Labour’s Lost; Chapter 13 King John; Part III Comedies and Histories; Chapter 14 The Merchant of Venice; Chapter 15_16 Henry IV: Parts 1–2; Chapter 17 The Merry Wives of Windsor; Chapter 18 Henry V; Chapter 19 Much Ado about Nothing; Chapter 20 Julius Caesar; Chapter 21 As you Like it; Chapter 22 Twelfth Night; Chapter 23 Troilus and Cressida; Part IV Tragic Period; Chapter 24 Hamlet; Chapter 25 All’s Well That Ends Well; Chapter 26 Measure for Measure; Chapter 27 Othello; Chapter 28 King Lear; Chapter 29 Macbeth; Chapter 30 Timon of Athens; Chapter 31 Antony and Cleopatra; Chapter 32 Coriolanus; Part V Last Plays; Chapter 33 Pericles; Chapter 34 Cymbeline; Chapter 35 The Winter’s Tale; Chapter 36 The Tempest; Chapter 37 Henry VIII;

    Biography

    Kenneth Muir