Prefaces to Shakespeare

856 Pages·2010·32.386 MB·English

by  Tony Tanner

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Foreword by Stephen Heath
WHEN TONY TANNER DIED IN 1998, the World lost
a critic who was as sensitive a reader of Jane Aus¬
ten as he was of Thomas Pynchon, and who wrote
with a warmth and clarity that belied his fluency in
literary theory.
In the final ten years of his life Tanner tackled
the largest project any critic in English can take
on—writing a preface to each of Shakespeare’s
plays. This collection serves as a comprehensive in¬
troduction for the general reader, the greatest and
perhaps the last in the line of great introductions
to Shakespeare written by such luminaries as Sam¬
uel Johnson and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Tanner
brings Shakespeare to life, explicating everything
from big-picture issues such as the implications
of shifts in Elizabethan culture to close readings
of Shakespeare’s deployment of complex words in
his plays.
Although these prefaces are written for a general
audience, there is much value for the scholar as well.
Tanner introduces some of the most significant
recent and historical scholarship on Shakespeare
to show the reader how certain .critics frame large
issues in a useful way. This scholarly, generos¬
ity permits Johnson, Hazlitt, Emerson, Thoreau,
Ruskin, Pater, and many others to enter into con¬
versation. The Independent said of the p-eject, “All
of Tanner’s life and education had p" ■ him
for this task and the results are mage in. cor -both
accessible and erudite.”
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PREFACES TO
SHAKESPEARE
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PREFACES TO
SHAKESPEARE
Tony Tanner
WITH A FOREWORD BY
STEPHEN HEATH
THE BELKNAP PRESS OF HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS
Cambridge, Massachusetts • London, England
2010
Prefaces by Tony Tanner copyright © 1992-1996 by the Literary Estate of Tony Tanner
Originally published by Everyman Library, an imprint of Alfred A. Knopf, Random
House
Foreword by Stephen Heath copyright © 2010 by the President and Fellows of Harvard
College
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Tanner, Tony.
Prefaces to Shakespeare/Tony Tanner; with a foreword by Stephen Heath,
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-0-674-05137-9 (cloth :alk. paper)
1. Shakespeare, William, 1564—1616—Criticism and interpretation. 2. Prefaces.
I. Title.
PR2976.T26 2010
822.3'3—dc22 2009044556
CONTENTS
Foreword by Stephen Heath ix
COMEDIES
The Comedy of Errors 20
The Taming of the Shrew 39
The Two Gentlemen of Verona 56
Love’s Labor’s Lost 75
Romeo and Juliet 92
A Midsummer Night’s Dream 114
The Merchant of Venice 140
The Merry Wives of Windsor 167
Much Ado About Nothing 180
As You Like It 199
Twelfth Night 226
All’s Well That Ends Well 250
Measure for Measure 275
Contents
VI
HISTORIES
303
Henry VI, Part One 3l8
Henry VI, Part Two 33°
Henry VI, Part Three 338
Richard III 348
King John 364
Richard II 380
Henry IV, Part One 401
Henry IV, Part Two 429
Henry V 445
Henry VIII 468
MAJOR TRAGEDIES 487
Hamlet 494
Othello 515
King Lear 534
Macbeth 554
GREEK AND ROMAN PLAYS 577
Titus Andronicus 579 3
Troilus and Cressida 589
Julius Caesar 604
Antony and Cleopatra 622
Timon of Athens 640
Coriolanus 653