The Absent ShakespeareThe Absent Shakespeare challenges the notion that Shakespeare is "faceless" in his plays. It opposes Borges's notion of Shakespeare as "no one . . . a bit of coldness," a Shakespeare who constructed a mythology based on "his own intense private life." Building on recent textual studies of King Lear and Hamlet, which compare Folio and Quarto differences, Mirsky sees them not just as an opportunity to view the playwright revising toward more skillful staging, greater complexity of plot, and ambiguity of character. The process of revision also exposes a personal Shakespeare. Differences between Folio and Quarto texts show the growing sophistication of Shakespeare's dramatic craft and reveal how the playwright changed as he matured. The book presents a dramatist maturing in time, grappling with incest, patricide, filicide, erotic love, and the inevitability of death. It finds this naked Shakespeare in Macbeth and The Tempest as well, expressed in the riddles of the plays. The author refers not only to the text of Shakespeare but also to the plays in performance - suggesting how the actor's reading and interpretation lay bare the intentions of the playwright on the stage. |
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pages 114,115 are important to me
Contents
| 15 | |
| 19 | |
The Itch Revises | 33 |
Hamlets Father | 47 |
The Shadows Dance | 71 |
Macbeths Child | 99 |
What Prospero Knows | 125 |
Shakespeares Myth | 141 |
Notes | 147 |
| 169 | |
| 172 | |
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Common terms and phrases
action anger answer appears audience become begins break Caliban calls changes character child Claudius Claudius's comes conscience Cordelia court cries dark daughter dead death desire drama draw dream echo Edgar eyes face fact fair father fear feel final flesh Folio follow Gertrude Ghost given gives grave Hamlet hand hear heart Horatio husband innocent King Lear King's Lady Macbeth Laertes latter Lear's leaves lines live look Lord madness magic mean mind Miranda mock moment mother murder nature never Ophelia perhaps play playwright plot points Poor Prince Prospero question reading reality reason reference remark revenge revision scene Second Quarto seems seen sense sexual Shake Shakespeare sisters sleep soliloquy speaks speech spirit stage suggests Tempest thou thought tion tragedy turns understand warning wife wish witches
Popular passages
Page 21 - Hear, Nature, hear ! dear goddess, hear ! Suspend thy purpose, if thou didst intend To make this creature fruitful ! Into her womb convey sterility ! Dry up in her the organs of increase, And from her derogate body never spring A babe to honour her...
Bibliographic information
| Title | The Absent Shakespeare |
| Author | Mark Jay Mirsky |
| Illustrated by | Inger J. Grytting |
| Edition | illustrated |
| Publisher | Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press, 1994 |
| ISBN | 0838635113, 9780838635117 |
| Length | 174 pages |
| Subjects | › Literary Criticism / General |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |