Description: Shakespeare is usually set apart from his contemporaries, in kind no less than quality. This book, the long-awaited final volume in the Oxford History of English Literature, sees Elizabethan drama as drawn together by a shared need to deal with contradictory pressures from heterogeneous audiences, censorious authorities, profit driven managers, and authors looking for classic status and social esteem. Hunter follows the compromises and contradictions of the Elizabethan repertory, examining how Shakespeare and his fellow dramatists were able to move easily from vulgar realism to poetic transcendence.
Review Quotes: "Hunter's comments are forceful and original...I find it remarkable that Hunter's literary history should read like a series of critical essays on complicated topics."--Renaissance Quarterly
"It makes a huge contribution, overcoming the formidable problems of combining stage history with history of drama, and of putting Shakespeare into perspective without diminishing his eminence."--Va Quarterly"No one is better qualified to carry out such a project, and George Hunter does it extremely well indeed. His discussion of the closely interwoven formal traditions is critically astute; his treatment of both major and minor authors is fair-minded and very readable. Personally I am extremely gratified that Hunter finally decided to go ahead and complete this project, demonstrating that there is still considerable value in the skillful practice of literary history."--Studies in English Literature"[The book] redirects attention to a wide range of plays that are ignored in most critical writings and illustrates the value of studying many major works in the context of their generic connections. It provides a ready reference handbook of information about plays. It throws all kinds of interesting sidelights on the plays of Shakespeare. In addition, the book maintains a strong narrative flow and is full of the kind of pithy comments that provide topics for papers and challenges for dissertations, so it should be of great use to graduate students and teachers."--Shakespeare Quarterly