Scholars, directors, and actors describe the rise of Shakespeare from one of many Elizabethian playwrights to preeminence in the theatrical canon

Product Description: After centuries of vilification and neglect by both scholars and actors, Titus Andronicus has at last come to be recognized as one of ShakespeareÂ's early masterpieces. In this powerful and ground-breaking edition, Bate offers a complete and radical reappraisal of ShakespeareÂ's bloodiest tragedy, seeing it as one of the dramatistÂ's most inventive plays, a complex and self-conscious improvisation upon classical sources...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: In the decade 1808-1818, Schlegel, Coleridge and Hazlitt produced some of the finest criticism on Shakespeare. This anthology brings together substantial selections from their work, together with contributions from other writers, including Goethe, Stendhal, Hugo and Keats...read more

Although it is well known that the Romantics were obsessed with Shakespeare, little attention has been paid to the ways in which he influenced their creative practices and their theories of the imagination. This new work finally presents the fascinating picture of how the Romantics read Shakespeare and responded to the implications of his work for their own poetry. The book provides the first full critical discussion of Shakespeare and Wordsworth, explores the influence of the plays on the poetry of Blake and Coleridge, and offers a fresh account of Shakespeare's powerful presence in the letters and poems of Keats and Byron, and in Shelley's dramas. Taking issue with prevalent deconstructionist theories and Harold Bloom's ideas on "the anxiety of influence," Bate instead carefully illustrates the ways in which initial attempts at blind imitation were transformed into graceful poetic echo and allusion.

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