There are some enterprises where “making it new”, to borrow Ezra Pound's mantra, is particularly difficult, and finding something new to say in the vast field of Shakespeare studies certainly comes to mind as a challenge. Yet even given the unparalleled literature available on this most canonised of authors, The Cambridge Shakespeare Guide is a quietly magnificent achievement. Emma Smith, Fellow and Tutor in English at Hertford College, Oxford, has succeeded in producing an admirably concise little handbook. It renders summaries of the Bard's plots and key characters, and the main themes of his works, with both economy and sensitivity to current debates in scholarship. As such, this book will be invaluable for theatregoers and for students up to undergraduate level.
The majority of the Guide is given to Works, chapters arranged alphabetically by title. These entries, typically six pages in length, cover not only the 38 plays that it is almost universally accepted Shakespeare wrote singly or collaboratively, from All's Well That Ends Well to The Winter's Tale, but also the poems. The famous Sonnets are given due attention, plus lesser‐known works, A Lover's Complaint, The Phoenix and the Turtle, The Rape of Lucrece and Venus and Adonis. Organization is a model of clarity, with quick reference requirements to the forefront. Each play is accorded its own chapter, with the exception of the three parts of King Henry VI, which are dealt with together – useful for modern audiences for whom the complexities of the Wars of The Roses may be unfamiliar. A one‐sentence headline neatly encapsulates the subject, genre even “problem” qualities: that for King Richard II for example reads “King Richard's overthrow: political coup or personal tragedy?”. Clearly indicated subsections then outline plot and characters; historical context and composition; performance history, and a brief, but stimulating, consideration of themes and interpretation. This latter will be especially useful for teachers looking for ways to stimulate discussion. A Key Facts side panel gives the browser a work's estimated date of composition and first performance; length; verse to prose ratio, and major characters' names and even their percentages of lines. The usefulness of this last is debatable, although it was interesting to note that Iago is actually a bigger part than Othello. Lastly, each play is illustrated with a photograph from a notable stage production of the last decade, usually featuring well‐known actors like Judi Dench and often in modern dress – all elements which seek to underline the currency and continuing relevance of Shakespeare's work.
A much shorter Context section presents several very short supplementary essays. These cover Shakespeare's life, including a handy chronology of the works and brief subsection on the by now mandatory “authorship question”; the Shakespearean theatre; his history in print and language, and even Shakespearean apocrypha. In keeping with a large, interested but general readership there is a brief bibliography of Further Reading, which while not dealing with individual works, cites key scholars like David Scott Kastan and Gary Taylor and one online resource (the Shakespeare Quartos Archive). The Guide is rounded off with an excellent six‐page index. This covers titles (given, as expected, in italics), illustrations, actors, directors, stage directions like “aside”, and some themes, such as “ghosts”.
Not a major research publication then, but a very useful addition to public libraries and collections for college and undergraduate patrons. Pitched to both the fledgling, at least, academic and to the general reader, and modestly priced, this book is a fitting tribute to an author who had certainly intended his plays, first and foremost, to be performed for the widest possible audience.
