Shakespeare: A Complete Introduction

Shakespeare wrote for everyone, whoever they were, from Queen or King to the most menial, and all came to see the plays. He is as comprehensive in his entertainment as he is in his audiences. For years, certain factions in society have tried to claim him for themselves and in so doing have deterred others, perhaps even you, from appreciating and enjoying his work. This book wishes to set him free for everyone to enjoy. It aims to introduce and explain the plays by looking at how they work, taking you on a journey through the genres of comedy, history and tragedy. It is the process of this journey, with its various landmarks, which is the book’s purpose.

We will also consider various critical perspectives that will help you clarify various movements or issues concerning Shakespeare’s work that we will meet along the way. Broad definitions of various critical movements, for example, can be found in Chapter 24. Obviously, as with any guide, I have to be selective. Each of Shakespeare’s plays is mentioned but we will spend more time discussing the best known and popular of the plays. Nevertheless, even plays in which Shakespeare may have had only the briefest creative and collaborative interest as a writer, get at least a mention, as do the poems, although I do not dwell on them in any detail.

There are plenty of good biographies of Shakespeare, and I spend a little time identifying some of the more recent ones but, throughout our journey, aspects of his life are referenced in the discussion. The book follows a logical framework, on which I comment in the conclusion, but I’ve taken care, I hope, to enable you to dip in and out of various chapters as you wish and to provide you with a wide range of references.

Hodder & Stoughton invited me to write this book following the publication of Shakespeare’s Comedies (2014) and Shakespeare’s Tragedies (2015), which I wrote for its All That Matters series. I draw on material from those books in some of the chapters. That being said, let’s ‘stiffen the sinews’ and begin.

Unless otherwise stated, the text used for all quotations and references to acts, scenes and lines is The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works edited by Richard Proudfoot, Ann Thompson and David Scott Kastan, reissued edition 2011, paperback (London: Bloomsbury Methuen Drama).