THE OXFORD COMPANION TO SHAKESPEARE

Edited by Michael Dobson and Stanley Wells. One hundred foremost Shakespeare scholars contributed to this first-class encyclopedic reader’s companion with over 3000 entries covering Shakespeare’s life, times, and works. A medium-sized entry on "hunting and sports," for instance, assesses the Bard’s knowledge and dramatic uses of fencing, falconry, fishing, and hunts for deer and fiercer beasts. Long entries on plays include synopses, sources, notes on textual reliability and variants, critical histories, stage and screen histories, and outstanding artistic accomplishments (use of sonnets in Romeo and Juliet, symmetrical patterns of imagery in The Tempest). Densely but unobtrusively cross-referenced, with 120 well-chosen black-and-white images. Appendixes: annotated bibliography; chronology; and, for the Histories, a map and genealogy. Illustrated. 9" x 11". Oxford University Press. 539 pages. 2008 paperback edition.

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