The adventures of a Shakespeare scholar

Rarely does a scholar single-handedly point Shakespeare study in a new direction. But in the 1950s, when brilliant insights were being achieved in Shakespeare's language, and a few theatre historians were recording stagings and stage business, Marvin Rosenberg led the way to a wider perspective of the poet-playwright's genius. He insisted that Shakespeare's art fused poetry-of-the-word with poetry-of-the-theatre, each illuminating the other inseparably.

The essays in this collection reflect the remarkable diversity of Rosenberg's pursuit of his vision; his theoretical grounding in the aesthetics of the dramatic form; his absorption of the cultural contexts in which Shakespeare's plays were created and perceived; his immersion in the language and characters of the plays, and in how critics and theatres of the world interpreted them.