William Shakespeare: Comedies

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Harold Bloom, Sterling Professor of Humanities Harold Bloom
Infobase Publishing, 2009 - Criticism - 282 pages
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William Shakespeare's comedies--including A Midsummer Night's Dream, As You Like It, Twelfth Night, The Merchant of Venice, and more--are funny, allusive, difficult, profound, and unforgettable, and have served as templates for other comedic works throughout the centuries. This invaluable new study guide contains a selection of the finest contemporary criticism of these classic plays.

 

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Contents

Introduction
1
The Serious Comedy of Twelfth Night
5
Country Matters
23
Agency and the Threat of Cuckoldry
47
Mimetic Service in The Two Gentlemen of Verona
55
The Taming of a Shrew
77
Stuffed with all honourable virtues
97
Language Magic the Dromios and The Comedy of Errors
127
We know what we know
171
Shylocks Sacred Nation
191
Shakespeare and Impure Aesthetics
217
Chronology
247
Contributors
249
Bibliography
253
Acknowledgments
261
Index
263

In Mercurys Household
149
Copyright

Common terms and phrases

aesthetic Antipholus Antipholus’s argues Armado audience Barabas Beatrice Beatrice’s Benedick Berowne Bottom Cambridge Castiglione’s characters Christian Claudio Comedy of Errors comic Costard court Courtier courtly critics cultural death desire Doctor Faustus domestic Don Pedro Drama Dromios Duke early modern Egeon Elizabethan English Eriksen Essays example fairy Feste Gentlemen of Verona Hero’s human husband identity Illyria Jew of Malta Jewish Julia ladies language Launce London lords Louis Montrose Love’s Labor’s Lost Lucetta magic male Marlowe Marlowe’s marriage master men’s Merchant of Venice Merry Wives Midsummer Night’s Dream mimesis mimetic mistress Montrose Oberon Olivia one’s Oxford pastoral pastoral’s play’s plot political Portia possession prince Princess Proteus Proteus’s realm Renaissance rhetorical role Rosalind scene sense servant sexual Shakespeare Shakespeare’s plays Shepheardes Calender shepherds Shrew Shylock social speech sprezzatura suggests Tamburlaine Titania trade trans Twelfth Night University Press Venetian Viola William Shakespeare woman women words

About the author (2009)

Harold Bloom was born on July 11, 1930 in New York City. He earned his Bachelor of Arts from Cornell in 1951 and his Doctorate from Yale in 1955. After graduating from Yale, Bloom remained there as a teacher, and was made Sterling Professor of Humanities in 1983. Bloom's theories have changed the way that critics think of literary tradition and has also focused his attentions on history and the Bible. He has written over twenty books and edited countless others. He is one of the most famous critics in the world and considered an expert in many fields. In 2010 he became a founding patron of Ralston College, a new institution in Savannah, Georgia, that focuses on primary texts. His works include Fallen Angels, Till I End My Song: A Gathering of Last Poems, Anatomy of Influence: Literature as a Way of Life and The Shadow of a Great Rock: A Literary Appreciation of The King James Bible. Harold Bloom passed away on October 14, 2019 in New Haven, at the age of 89.

Bibliographic information

QR code for William Shakespeare
TitleWilliam Shakespeare: Comedies
Bloom's Modern Critical Views
EditorsHarold Bloom, Sterling Professor of Humanities Harold Bloom
PublisherInfobase Publishing, 2009
ISBN1604136316, 9781604136319
Length282 pages
  
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