Holderness, Graham, Shakespeare’s History, New York: St Martin’s Press, 1985.
Howard, Jean E., and Phyllis Rackin, Engendering a Nation: A Feminist Account of Shakespeare’s English Histories, London and New York: Routledge, 1997.
Rackin, Phyllis, Stages of History: Shakespeare’s English Chronicles, Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1990.
Ribner, Irving, The English History Play in the Age of Shakespeare, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1957. Saccio, Peter, Shakespeare’s English Kings, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977.
Sprague, Arthur Colby, Shakespeare’s Histories: Plays for the Stage, London: Society for Theatre Research, 1964.
Tillyard, E.M.W., Shakespeare’s History Plays, London: Chatto and Windus, 1944.
Criticism of the tragedies
Berry, Philippa, Shakespeare’s Feminine Endings, London: Routledge, 1999.
Booth, Stephen, ‘King Lear,’ ‘Macbeth,’ Indefinition, and Tragedy, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1983.
Bradley, A.C., Shakespearean Tragedy, 3rd edn, New York: St Martin’s Press, 1992.
Brooke, Nicholas, Shakespeare’s Early Tragedies, London: Methuen, 1968.
Danson, Lawrence, Tragic Alphabet: Shakespeare’s Drama of Language, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1974.
Dollimore, Jonathan, Radical Tragedy: Religion, Ideology, and Power in the Drama of Shakespeare and His Contemporaries, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984.
Everett, Barbara, Young Hamlet: Essays on Shakespeare’s Tragedies, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990.
Felperin, Howard, Shakespearean Representation: Mimesis and Modernity in Elizabethan Tragedy, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1977.
Frye, Northrop, Fools of Time: Studies of Shakespearean Tragedy, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1967.
Goldman, Michael, Acting and Action in Shakespearean Tragedy, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1985.
Knight, G. Wilson, The Wheel of Fire: Interpretation of Shakespeare’s Tragedies, 4th edn, London: Methuen, 1956.
Liebler, Naomi Conn, Shakespeare’s Festive Tragedy, London: Routledge, 1995.
Moila, Robert, Shakespeare’s Rome, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983.
Muir, Kenneth, Shakespeare’s Tragic Sequence, London: Hutchinson, 1972.
Sprengnether, Madelon, and Shirley Nelson Garner, eds, Shakespearean Tragedy and Gender, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1996.
Hamlet criticism
Alexander, Nigel, Poison, Play, and Duel: A Study in ‘Hamlet’, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1971.
Calderwood, James L., To Be and Not to Be: Negation and Metadrama in ‘Hamlet’, New York: Columbia University Press, 1983.
Clayton, Thomas, ed., The ‘Hamlet’ First Published (Q1, 1603): Origins, Form, Intertextuality, Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1992.
Charney, Maurice, Style in ‘Hamlet’, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1969.
Frye, Roland Mushat, The Renaissance ‘Hamlet’: Issues and Responses in 1600, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1984.
Kastan, David Scott, ed., Critical Essays on Shakespeare’s Hamlet, New York: G.K. Hall, 1995.
Levin, Harry, The Question of Hamlet, 1959, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1970.
Prosser, Eleanor, Hamlet and Revenge, Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1971.
Rosenberg, Marvin, The Masks of ‘Hamlet’, Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1992.
Othello criticism
Adamson, Jane, ‘Othello’ as Tragedy: Some Problems of Judgment and Feeling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980.
Calderwood, James L., The Properties of ‘Othello’, Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1989.
Heilman, Robert B., Magic in the Web: Action and Language in ‘Othello’, Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1956.
Jones, Eldred, Othello’s Countrymen: The African in English Renaissance Drama, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1965.
Rosenberg, Marvin, The Masks of ‘Othello’: The Search for the Identity of Othello, Iago, and Desdemona by Three Centuries of Actors and Critics, 1961, Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1992.
Vaughan, Virginia, Othello: A Contextual History, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994.
King Lear criticism
Colie, Rosalie L., and F.T. Flahiff, eds, Some Facets of ‘King Lear’: Essays in Prismatic Criticism, Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1974.
Elton, William R., ‘King Lear’ and the Gods, Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1988.
Heilman, Robert B., This Great Stage: Image and Structure in ‘King Lear’, Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1948.
Kronefeld, Judy, ‘King Lear’ and The Naked Truth: Rethinking the Language of Religion and Resistance, Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1998.
Lusardi, James P., and June Schuleter, Reading Shakespeare in Performance: ‘King Lear’, Rutherford, N.J.: Fairleigh Dickinson, 1991.
Mack, Maynard, ‘King Lear’ in Our Time, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1965.
Rosenberg, Marvin, The Masks of ‘King Lear’, 1972, Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1992.
Taylor, Gary, and Michael Warren, eds, Division of the Kingdoms: Shakespeare’s Two Versions of ‘King Lear’, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1983.
Urkowitz, Steven, Shakespeare’s Revision of ‘King Lear’, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1980.
Macbeth criticism
Bartholomeusz, Dennis, ‘Macbeth’ and the Players, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984.
Brown, John Russell, ed., Focus on ‘Macbeth’, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1982.
Calderwood, James L., If It Were Done: ‘Macbeth’ and Tragic Action, Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1986.
Jorgensen, Paul, Our Naked Fantasies: Sensational Art and Meaning in ‘Macbeth’, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1971.
Paul, Henry P., The Royal Play of ‘Macbeth’, New York: Macmillan, 1950.
Rosenberg, Marvin, The Masks of ‘Macbeth’, 1978, Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1992.
Criticism of nondramatic poetry
Baldwin, T.W., On the Literary Genetics of Shakespeare’s Poems and Sonnets, Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1950.
Booth, Stephen, An Essay on Shakespeare’s Sonnets, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1969.
Bush, Douglas, Mythology and the Renaissance Tradition in English Literature, rev. edn, New York: Norton, 1963.
Dubrow, Heather, Captive Victors: Shakespeare’s Narrative Poems and Sonnets, Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1987.
Fineman, Joel, Shakespeare’s Perjured Eye: The Invention of Poetic Subjectivity in the Sonnets, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1986.
Hulse, Clarke, Metaphoric Verse: The Elizabethan Minor Epic, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1981.
Knight, G. Wilson, The Mutual Flame: On Shakespeare’s Sonnets and ‘The Phoenix and the Turtle’, Macmillan, 1955.
Kreiger, Murray, A Window to Criticism: Shakespeare’s Sonnets and Modern Poetics, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1964.
Leishman, J.B., Themes and Variations in Shakespeare’s Sonnets, 1961, New York: Harper and Row, 1966.
Muir, Kenneth, Shakespeare’s Sonnets, London: Allen and Unwin, 1979.
Vendler, Helen, The Art of Shakespeare’s Sonnets, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1997.
Glossary
Abbreviations
?
possible meaning
adj.
adjective
adv.
adverb
cf.
compare
dial.
dialect
esp.
especially
Fr.
French
Gr.
Greek
int.
in
terjection
Ital.
Italian
Lat.
Latin
OE
Old English
prep.
preposition
sb.
substantive
Sp.
Spanish
v.
verb
’a, a he
a life on (my) life (an oath)
abate blunt; beat; shorten; deprive; except
abatement diminished amount; depreciation
Abel see Cain
abhor disgust; reject
abide stay temporarily; withstand, stand up to; pay the penalty for (cf. aby)
abject sb. servile person; adj. base, servile
able empower
abode sb. staying; v. forebode
abortivesb. premature birth; adj. deformed, horrible
abram auburn
abridgement shortening; passing of time, entertainment
abroad on the move; apart
abrook bear, tolerate
abruption interruption of speech
Absey book introductory book, primer
absolute perfect, complete, without limitation; determined
abuse sb. deception; v. deceive
aby pay the penalty for (cf. abide)
abysm abyss
accident incident
accite cite, call up; excite
accommodate equip
accommodation provision, delicacy
accomplice colleague
accomplish equip
accountant responsible
accoutred dressed
accusativo‘in the accusative case’ (Lat.)
acerb bitter
ache see H
Acheron a river of the underworld
achieve win
Achilles’ spear spear able both to wound and to cure those wounds with its rust
acknown aware, in the know
aconitum wolf’s bane, a poisonous plant
acquit pay back; free
Actaeon hunter in myth who, seeing Diana bathing, was turned by her into a stag (creating connotations of cuckoldry, see horn) and hunted to death by his hounds
action-taking taking legal action, litigious
acture action
Ad manes fratrum to our brothers’ spirits (Lat.)
Adam fallen man, wickedness; Adam Bell, an archer in folklore
adamant exceedingly hard metal; magnet
adder’s sense see sense
addiction propensity
addition title granted in honour of some excellence
address prepare
admiral flagship
admiration amazement, wonder
admire wonder
admittance admissibility, fashion
adoptious bestowed
Adsum here I am (Lat.)
advantagesb. addition; interest; v. help, benefit
adventure sb. risk; v. take a risk
advertise make known, notify
advertisement advice, admonition; news
advice thought, reflection
advised careful
aedile Roman public officer
Aeneas Trojan prince who carried his father, Anchises, out of burning Troy and became the lover of Dido (see Dido) before abandoning her to found the Roman state
Aeolus god of the winds
aery see eyrie
Aesculapius god of healing
affect sb. passion, appetite; affection; v. admire, have affection for, favour; impersonate, put on
affectedly affectionately
affection feeling, disposition, propensity; passion; affectation
affeer’d assured
affiance trust
affined connected, bound
affront sb. attack; v. come face to face with, meet
affy affiance, betroth; place trust
after in the manner of
after-eye look after
again back, reciprocally
against before;in preparation for (when)
agate jewel sometimes carved with a small figure
Agenor father of Europa (see Europa)
aglet-baby (?) baby dressed with aglets (tags attached to clothes); (?) aglet in the shape of a small figure
agnize acknowledge
a-hold close to the wind
aidance help
aim sb. conjecture, idea; v. conjecture; cry aim = applaud, cheer; give aim = observe an archer’s shots
Aio te, Aeacida, Romanos vincere posse the ambiguous answer Apollo gave Pyrrhus when he enquired whether he would vanquish Rome (Lat.= ‘I affirm that thou, descendant of Aeacus, canst conquer the Romans’ or ‘I affirm that the Romans can vanquish thee, descendant of Aeacus’)
Ajax Greek hero in the Trojan war
alarm noise; attack; see alarum
alarum call to arms
Alcides Hercules (see Hercules)
alderliefest dearest of all
Alecto one of the Furies, mythological hags with serpents in their hair
all amort downcast
all hid the game of hide and seek
all to altogether, utterly
Alla nostra casa ben venuto, molto honorato signor mio Petrucio ‘Welcome to our house, my much-honoured Signor Petruchio’ (Ital.)
Alla stoccato at the thrust (Ital.)
allay sb. calming influence; v. detract from
allegiant loyal
All-hallond Eve Hallowe’en (31 October)
All-hallowmas All Saints’ Day (1 November)
All-hallown summer late season of fine weather
allicholy, allycholy melancholy
alligant Quickly’s word for either ‘elegant’ or ‘eloquent’
allons‘let’s go’ (Fr.)
allottery something allotted, share
allowance acknowledgement; approval, praise; permission
All-Souls’ day 2 November
all-thing entirely
Almain German
alms-drink drink taken as charity
alow see ’loo
alter exchange
Althaea Queen of Calydon who killed her son, Meleager, by burning a firebrand reserved for him by the Fates
amain aloud; at speed
amerce penalize
ames-ace two aces thrown at dice, the lowest score
an see and
anatomize open up for inspection, dissect
anatomy skeleton
Anchises father of Aeneas (see Aeneas)
anchor religious recluse
ancient standard; standard- bearer; Ensign
and if
andirons props to support burning logs over a hearth
angel spirit; English gold coin depicting the archangel Michael
Anna sister of Dido (see Dido)
annexment addition, appendage
annothanize (?) see anatomize; (?) annotate
annoy sb. torment, pain, injury; v. injure
anon in a moment; till anon = until a little later
Anthropophagi cannibals
anthropophaginian cannibal
antic sb. grotesque figure, fool; grotesque pageant; adj. in grotesque disguise, masked; v. make grotesque
antre cave
ape mimic; fool; leading apes in hell = traditional punishment of old maids
Apollo god of song and music, of the sun, of healing and of the oracle at Delphi; he fell in love with Daphne who was transformed into a laurel as he chased her
appaid satisfied
apparently in open view
appeach impeach, accuse
appeal sb. formal challenge, accusation; v. impeach
appellant formal challenger
apple-john type of apple kept until shrivelled
appliance compliance; service; treatment
appointed equipped, armed
appointment equipment; resolution; direction
apprehensive possessing reason
approof proof, proving; sanction
&n
bsp; approve prove; put to proof; be to one’s credit
apt ready, inclined; probable, likely; impressionable
aqua-vitae strong spirits
Aquilon the North wind
Arabian bird the phoenix, a mythical bird supposed to be unique
arbitrament, arbitrement arbitration, decision
arch lord
argal see ergo
argo see ergo
argosy large trading vessel
argument theme, subject of controversy; proof, demonstration
Ariachne = Arachne, a weaver in mythology, metamorphosed to a spider
Ariadne beloved of Theseus, who abandoned her
Arion poet who charmed a dolphin into carrying him over the waves
arm bear, carry
arm-gaunt lean from bearing arms
Armigero from the title ‘Armiger’ (Lat.), signifying entitlement to a coat of arms
armipotent mighty in arms
aroint thee, aroynt thee be off with you
arras curtain of woven tapestry
arrose sprinkle
Arthur’s show an exhibition of archery given by an Arthurian society
articulate negotiate terms; set forth in detail
artificial relating to or skilled in any of the ‘arts’ (painting, medicine, witchcraft, etc.)
artist learned man
Ascanius son of Aeneas (see Aeneas)
asinico little ass (Sp.)
aspect gaze; image; (in astrology) planetary position
aspersion sprinkling, with connotations of benediction
aspicious Dogberry’s word for ‘suspicious’
assay sb. attempt; challenge; trial; v. try, test out, make trial of
assubjugate subdue
assurance transfer of property; guarantee, security; betrothal
assure betroth
Astraea goddess of justice
Atalanta maiden who outsprinted her suitors and put them to death
Ate goddess of confusion and strife
atomy atom, tiny particle; Quickly’s word for ‘anatomy’ (see anatomy)
atone agree; set in agreement
atonement agreement
Atropos one of the Fates (see Fates)
attach arrest
attachment arrest
attainder accusation, taint, disgrace
The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works Page 578