There has been, of course, more criticism devoted to William Shakespeare than to any other author in the entire canon of English literature. As the brief preface to this new collection points out, The New Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare is the fifth in this publisher's Companion series that the playwright and poet has received. Edited, like the previous, 2001 edition, by Margreta de Grazia, an English professor at the University of Pennsylvania, and the distinguished Shakespeare scholar Stanley Wells, this companion attempts to convey the changes in our own experience of the Bard's work on page, stage and screen over the last decade. The breadth of this enterprise is obvious: 21 entirely new essay‐chapters by academics drawn from North America, Europe, South Africa and New Zealand. Yet it is in its economy that this new volume is most impressive.
The essays are preceded by two helpful framing chronologies. The first outlines what is known of Shakespeare's personal and professional life, from his baptism in 1564 through to not only his own burial but the death of his last direct descendent in 1670. The second offers a conjectural chronological list of the works, based on the Canon and Chronology section of the earlier reference work Wells co‐edited, William Shakespeare: A Textural Companion (Wells and Taylor, 1987): from The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1590‐1591) to The Two Noble Kinsmen (1613‐1614).
The essays themselves cover both traditional and emergent topics in the study of Shakespeare. Thus, entries address biography; history of texts in transmission and performance; the genres of comedies, histories, romances and tragedies; the poems; politics, and race, gender and sexuality. These familiar subjects are all joined by considerations of Shakespeare and globalisation, new technologies, and his presence in popular culture. The essays average some fifteen pages in length. Research aids atone for this brevity though, as each piece concludes with bibliographical notes and, usually, a reading list for further scholarship. There is however, very little cross‐referencing between the chapters, and also an inconsistent use of subheadings in bold type (always a good navigational and browsing aid). Both betoken the high degree of autonomy and a diversity of approach from contributors. For example, Stephen Greenblatt's piece on the “traces” of Shakespeare's life is quite conventional in structure, while Jeff Dolven and Sean Keilen offer an interesting attempt to trace the writer's intellectual sources and development through brief sections on four of his “readers”: Hamlet, Brutus, Malvolio and Prospero. A political conservatism on Shakespeare's part is assumed as being universally accepted, in one essay (Tom Hoenselaar's on the histories), while Paul Prescott's entry on popular culture draws attention to studies which suggest a more liberal stance.
For all this, there are very minor quibbles with the accuracy of content – the dating of Robert Bolt's play A Man For All Seasons as “1906” rather than 1960 is a rare typographical error. The text is also well‐supported by a small but judicious selection of illustrations. Perhaps most impressively of all, the final chapter by Andrew Dickson, is an excellent, concise guide to the vast field of Shakespearean bibliography. This essay is an exemplar for clarity in layout, with sub‐headed sections on editions of complete and single works; general reference works, biographies; history in various medium; critical trends and publications, and outline resources.
The volume concludes with a similarly concise single, eighteen page index. This covers works, people and subjects. Inter‐relationships are clearly spelt out – as with the indented listing of A Midsummers Night's Dream under the entry for Peter Brook.
Altogether, this is a very impressive and reasonably priced snapshot of current scholarship across the full range of Shakespearean studies, one which places the writer in both national and international contexts. It will be an essential purchase for any academic library that serves the needs of researchers in Shakespeare and his period.
