This is a succinct and finest history of Shakespeare studies in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

An indespensable companion to The Norton Shakespeare, Based on the Oxford Edition, this is the most comprehensive reference work on Shakespearean textual problems ever compiled in a single volume. William Shakespeare: A Textual Companion provides a wealth of information about the problems presented by texts and the processes by which editorial decisions are reached. The General Introduction discusses the critical and theoretical issues raised by different kinds of editions, the nature of early manuscripts, printed texts, and the evidence for the canon and chronology of Shakespeare's works. It also offers a concise history of the editing of Shakespeare and sets forth the editorial principles of the Oxford Edition. Included for each work, are an introduction, textual notes, press variants, discussions of emendations and problems of modernization, plausible alternative readings, and a letter-by-letter reprint of the stage directions in the control text, among other materials. --

This bibliography provides easy access to the most important Shakespeare studies in the past four decades. Brief annotations, a detailed table of contents, cross-references, and a complete index make this bibliography especially useful.

Shakespeare's idiom is an aggregate of archaic modes of speech and codes of conduct. This book attempts to make that idiom more accessible and, in the process, to illuminate the significance of heroic concepts to a study of Shakespeare's tragedies and histories.