In Shakespeare through Letters, David M. Bergeron analyzes the letters found within Shakespeare's comedies, histories, and tragedies, arguing that the letters offer the principal intertextual element in the plays as text in their own right. Bergeron posits that Shakespeare's theater itself exists at the intersection of oral and textual culture, which the letters also exhibit as they represent writing, reading, and interpretation in a way that audiences would be familiar with, in contrast with the illustrious culture of kings, queens, and warriors. This book demonstrates that the letters, profound or perfunctory, constitute texts that warrant interpretation even as they remain material stage props, impacting narrative development, revealing character, and enhancing the play's tone. Scholars of literature, theater, and history will find this book particularly useful.
David M. Bergeron is professor emeritus of English at University of Kansas.
Preface To the Reader Chapter 1: Comedies Two Gentlemen of Verona Love's Labor's Lost Much Ado about Nothing As You Like It The Merry Wives of Windsor The Merchant of Venice Twelfth Night All's Well That Ends Well Measure for Measure Troilus and Cressida Pericles Cymbeline The Winter's Tale Chapter 2: Histories 1 Henry VI 2 Henry VI 3 Henry VI Richard III King John Richard II 1 Henry IV 2 Henry IV Henry VIII Chapter 3: Tragedies Titus Andronicus Romeo and Juliet Julius Caesar Hamlet Macbeth Othello King Lear Timon of Athens Antony and Cleopatra Coriolanus Appendix: Further Reading References About the Author
At a time when the collected letters of famous authors attract ever larger numbers of readers, David Bergeron makes up for the lack of any surviving letters from William Shakespeare by gathering together in Shakespeare Through Letters all the letters Shakespeare introduces into his comedies, histories, and tragedies. Drawing on the skills of close reading and sympathetic imagination displayed in his books on pageantry, patronage, and James I's personal letters, Bergeron here opens up "the experience of letters" - experience that embraces characters within the fictions, actors on the stage, spectators in the theater, and "the great variety of readers" of Shakespeare's printed texts.--Bruce R. Smith, University of Southern California, author of Phenomenal Shakespeare Combining scholarly expertise in early modern correspondence with a lifetime spent teaching, David Bergeron is uniquely qualified to guide us through the letters that permeate Shakespeare's plays - letters that inform, amuse, woo, lie, betray; letters that are delivered, miscarried, read, unread, torn, burned, filed for posterity. In the first study to address every play in the canon, Bergeron shows how to use the letters as an entry point to understanding Shakespeare's craft, and thus the dramas he crafted. With clear, accessible, yet penetrating analyses of each play, Bergeron demonstrates beyond doubt that if we know our letters, we'll know our Shakespeare.--Alan Stewart, Columbia University, author of Shakespeare's Letters
