Shakespeare's Letters

by Alan Stewart

Shakespeare's plays are stuffed with letters - 111 appear on stage in all but five of his dramas. But for modern actors, directors, and critics they are frequently an awkward embarrassment. Alan Stewart shows how and why Shakespeare put letters on stage in virtually all of his plays. By reconstructing the very different uses to which letters were put in Shakespeare's time, and recapturing what it meant to write, send, receive, read, and archive a letter, it throws new light on some of his most familiar dramas. Early modern letters were not private missives sent through an anonymous postal system, but a vital - sometimes the only - means of maintaining contact and sending news between distant locations. Penning a letter was a serious business in a period when writers made their own pen and ink; letter-writing protocols were strict; letters were dispatched by personal messengers or carriers, often received and read in public - and Shakespeare exploited all these features to dramatic effect. Surveying the vast range of letters in Shakespeare's oeuvre, the book also features sustained new readings of Hamlet, King Lear, Antony and Cleopatra, The Merchant of Venice and Henry IV Part One.

Genres: Nonfiction, Shakespeare

422 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Alan Stewart is Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. He is the author of the biographies Philip Sidney: A Double Life and Hostage to Fortune: The Troubled Life of Francis Bacon (with Lisa Jardine)>. He was previously Reader in Renaissance Studies at Birbeck, University of London, and Associate Director of the AHRB Centre for Editing Lives and Letters.

Reviews

[Katheryn Thompson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like this kind of book, that focuses on something quite specific, and the letters in Shakespeare's plays are a good choice. Shakespeare's Letters provides lots of useful information about letters in early modern England, and plenty of food for thought regarding how to write about these interesting props. The way that Alan Stewart approaches letters is also a useful model for thinking about other kinds of objects.

[Rozonda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting book that looks at Shakespeare's plays through their letters and the importance of letters and messages. Revealing and original.