Shakespeare's Letters

Shakespeare's Letters shows how and why Shakespeare put letters on stage in virtually all of his plays. Showing the very different uses to which letters were put in Shakespeare's time, this book throws new light on some of his most familiar dramas. Includes new readings of Hamlet, King Lear, and The Merchant of Venice. - ;Shakespeare's plays are stuffed with letters - 111 appear on stage in all but five of his dramas. But for modern actors, directors, and critics they are frequently an awkward embarrassment. Alan Stewart shows how and why Shakespeare put letters on stage in virtually all of his plays. By reconstructing the very different uses to which letters were put in Shakespeare's time, and recapturing what it meant to write, send, receive, read, and archive a letter, it throws new light on
some of his most familiar dramas. Early modern letters were not private missives sent through an anonymous postal system, but a vital - sometimes the only - means of maintaining contact and sending news between distant locations. Penning a letter was a serious business in a period when writers made
their own pen and ink; letter-writing protocols were strict; letters were dispatched by personal messengers or carriers, often received and read in public - and Shakespeare exploited all these features to dramatic effect. Surveying the vast range of letters in Shakespeare's oeuvre, the book also features sustained new readings of Hamlet, King Lear, Antony and Cleopatra, The Merchant of Venice and Henry IV Part One. - ;I can think of only a handful of books that utterly transform the way I read the plays; Alan Stewart's Shakespeare's Letters is one of them. The scholarship, critical insight, and command of social history are dazzling. - James Shapiro, author of 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare;I was astonished by the rich critical insights on both points of detail and in overall readings of individual plays yielded by Alan Stewart's immensely well-informed and critically acute study of Shakespeare within the context of the letter-writing traditions and conventions of his time. This brilliant and highly enjoyable work of original scholarship resoundingly demonstrates the value of paying close attention to the details of what Shakespeare actually wrote. - Professor Stanley Wells, Chairman of The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust

Nyckelord: POETRY / General POE000000