Lectures on Shakespeare

"Auden penetrates to the very core of Shakespeare's originality, expressing himself in a crystalline analytical prose."--Kirkus Reviews "Auden's lectures can be read with profit not just as a commentary, but as an anthology of the best and most revelatory passages of Shakespeare."--Michael Potemra, National Review "A remarkably full account of what the poet said about Shakespeare but also about many other matters ... A remarkable achievement."--Frank Kermode, London Review of Books "Auden was no ordinary lecturer, as this collection shows ... Alive with his magpie-like intelligence, punctuated by humorous asides and digressive interludes, [the lectures] are as much a running commentary on the practices and preoccupations of a poet at the height of his own creative powers as they are an exposition of the works of another."--The Economist "Auden's quick and reflective mind is everywhere apparent in these essays... Through his insightful, often arresting comments on love, friendship, forgiveness, transformation, villainy, justice, responsibility, authority, and other life-defining concepts, Auden generates a template that teaches as much about experience as it does about Shakespeare's plays... Readers will be grateful for access to the wisdom of an especially astute poet who clearly knew Shakespeare."--Choice "Arthur Kirsch has artfully patched together a richly circumstantial and dramatic volume that brings the bizarre, playful, haunted Auden of these years vividly to life... Auden's Lectures on Shakespeare, miraculously speaking to us from another world, are crammed with ... illuminations, sparks of wit, suggestive pieces of poetic fancy."--Nicholas Jenkins, The New Republic "Anyone who cares about Shakespeare will enjoy this book, the finest by any English poet on the subject since (and I am not forgetting Coleridge) Dr. Johnson."--Lachlan MacKinnon, Daily Telegraph "In every way, Kirsch has produced a model of useful scholarship... To know Auden's work well is to acquire a liberal education. These lectures on Shakespeare are a good place to start."--Michael Dirda, Washington Post Book World "For anyone who has ever resolved in vain to sit down and read right through Shakespeare, this at last is the volume to help fulfil that resolution. But it is also a volume to place beside the family Shakespeare. In the best sense of the word it is masterly."--Christopher Murray, Irish Times

Arthur Kirsch, Alice Griffin Professor Emeritus at the University of Virginia, is the author of many books, including "The Passions of Shakespeare's Tragic Heroes" and "Shakespeare and the Experience of Love", and the editor of several others.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS vii INTRODUCTION ix LECTURES Henry VI, Parts One, Two, and Three 3 Richard III 13 The Comedy of Errors and The Two Gentlemen of Verona 23 Love's Labour's Lost 33 Romeo and Juliet 44 A Midsummer Night's Dream 53 The Taming of the Shrew, King John, and Richard II 63 The Merchant of Venice 75 Sonnets 86 Henry IV, Parts One and Two, and Henry V 101 Much Ado About Nothing 113 The Merry Wives of Windsor 124 Julius Caesar 125 As You Like It 138 Twelfth Night 152 Hamlet 159 Troilus and Cressida 166 All's Well That Ends Well 181 Measure for Measure 185 Othello 195 Macbeth 208 King Lear 219 Antony and Cleopatra 231 Coriolanus 243 Tiynon of Athens 255 Pericles and Cymbeline 270 The Winter's Tale 284 The Tempest 296 Concluding Lecture 308 APPENDIX I: Auden's Saturday Discussion Classes 321 APPENDIX II: Fall Term Final Examination 341 APPENDIX III: Auden's Markings in Kittredge 347 TEXTUAL NOTES 363 INDEX 391