This text was the first full study of the origins and authorship of A Lover's Complaint.

Jonathan Post introduces all of Shakespeare's poetry, including the sonnets and his great narrative poems, and explores themes of love and lust in these works. He also considers the debates surrounding their disputed authorship, and the impact these poems had, from contemporary readers right up to today.

From off a hill whose concave womb re-worded_A plaintful story from a sistering vale,_My spirits to attend this double voice accorded,_And down I laid to list the sad-tun'd tale;_Ere long espied a fickle maid full pale,_Tearing of papers, breaking rings a-twain,_Storming her world with sorrow's wind and rain._ Upon her head a platted hive of straw,_Which fortified her visage from the sun,_Whereon the thought might think sometime it saw_The carcase of a beauty spent and done._Time had not scythed all that youth begun,_Nor youth all quit; but, spite of Heaven's fell rage_Some beauty peeped through lattice of sear'd age._ Oft did she heave her napkin to her eyne,_Which on it had conceited characters,_Laund'ring the silken figures in the brine_That season'd woe had pelleted in tears,_And often reading what contents it bears;_As often shrieking undistinguish'd woe,_In clamours of all size, both high and low.

Despite the outpour of interpretations, from critics of all schools, on Shakespeare's dramatic works and other poetic works, A Lover's Complaint has been almost totally ignored by criticism. This collection of essays is designed to bring to the poem the attention it deserves for its beauty, its aesthetic, psychological and conceptual complexity, and its representation of its cultural moment. A series of readings of A Lover's Complaint, particularly engaging with issues of psychoanalysis and gender, the volume cumulatively builds a detailed picture of the poem, its reception, and its critical neglect. The essays in the volume, by leading Shakespeareans, open up this important text before scholars, and together generate the long-overdue critical conversation about the many intriguing facets of the poem.

This Companion provides a full introduction to the poetry of William Shakespeare through discussion of his freestanding narrative poems, the Sonnets, and his plays. Fourteen leading international scholars provide accessible and authoritative chapters on all relevant topics: from Shakespeare's seminal role in the development of English poetry, the wide-ranging practice of his poetic form, and his enigmatic place in print and manuscript culture, to his immersion in English Renaissance politics, religion, classicism, and gender dynamics. With individual chapters on Venus and Adonis, The Rape of Lucrece, The Passionate Pilgrim, 'The Phoenix and the Turtle', the Sonnets, and A Lover's Complaint, the Companion also includes chapters on the presence of poetry in the dramatic works, on the relation between poetry and performance, and on the reception and influence of the poems. The volume includes a chronology of Shakespeare's life, a note on reference works, and a reading list for each chapter.