Shakespeare as Literary Dramatist [Hardcover]

This second edition of Erne's groundbreaking study includes a new preface that reviews the controversy the book has triggered.Erne's groundbreaking study argues that Shakespeare wrote his plays not only with audiences but also with readers in mind. This second edition includes a substantial, 10,000-word preface that reviews and intervenes in the controversy that the book has triggered.Erne's groundbreaking study argues that Shakespeare wrote his plays not only with audiences but also with readers in mind. This second edition includes a substantial, 10,000-word preface that reviews and intervenes in the controversy that the book has triggered.Now in a new edition, Lukas Erne's groundbreaking study argues that Shakespeare, apart from being a playwright who wrote theatrical texts for the stage, was also a literary dramatist who produced reading texts for the page. Examining the evidence from early published playbooks, Erne argues that Shakespeare wrote many of his plays with a readership in mind and that these literary texts would have been abridged for the stage because they were too long for performance. The variant early texts of Romeo and Juliet, Henry V, and Hamlet are shown to reveal important insights into the different media for which Shakespeare designed his plays. This revised and updated edition includes a new and substantial preface that reviews and intervenes in the controversy the study has triggered and lists reviews, articles, and books which respond to or build on the first edition.Preface to the second edition; Introduction; Part I. Publication: 1. The legitimation of printed playbooks in Shakespeare's time; 2. The making of 'Shakespeare'; 3. Shakespeare and the publication of his plays (I): the late sixteenth century; 4. Shakespeare and the publication of his plays (II): the early seventeenth century; 5. The players' alleged opposition to print; Part II. Texts: 6. Why size matters: 'the two hours' traffic of our stage' and the length of Shakespearelľ