JAMES E. BERG is Visiting Assistant Professor of English at Middlebury College in Vermont, USAANDRÉ G. BOURASSA is Professor Emeritus at the École supérieure de théâtre at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQÀM), Canada MICHAEL BRISTOL teaches in the Department of English at McGill University, CanadaANTHONY DAWSON is Professor Emeritus at the University of British Columbia, CanadaWILLIAM DODD formerly taught English Literature at the Universities of Bologna and Siena, ItalyANDREW JAMES HARTLEY is the Distinguished Chair of Shakespeare Studies at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, USALEANORE LIEBLEIN researches on the performing body at McGill University, CanadaTREVOR PONECH is Associate Professor of English at McGill University, CanadaCAMILLE WELLS SLIGHTS is Professor Emerita at the University of Saskatchewan, CanadaMYRNA WYATT SELKIRK teaches on the Drama and Theatre Program in the English Department at McGill University, CanadaROBERT WEIMANN is Professor Emeritus of Drama at University of California, Irvine, USASARAH WERNER is the director of the Folger-GW Undergraduate Research Seminar at the Folger Shakespeare Library, USA

• Contents Preface Notes on Contributors Introduction; P.Yachnin  and J.Slights PART I: THEORY Confusing Shakespeare's Characters with Real People: Reflections on Reading in Four Questions; M.Bristol The Reality of Fictive Cinematic Characters; T.Ponech Character as Dynamic Identity: From Fictional Interaction Script to Performance; W.Dodd PART II: HISTORY Personnage : History, Philology, Performance; A.G.Bourassa The Properties of Character in King Lear ; J.Berg Embodied Intersubjectivity and the Creation of Early Modern Character; L.Lieblein PART III: PERFORMANCE Metatheater and the Performance of Character in The Winter's Tale ; P.Yachnin  and M.W.Selkirk Character, Agency and the Familiar Actor; A.J.Hartley The Actor-Character in 'Secretly Open' Action: Doubly Encoded Personation on Shakespeare's Stage; R.Weimann PART IV: THEATRICAL PERSONS Is Timon a Character?; A.Dawson When is a bastard not a bastard? Character in King John ; C.Slights Arming Cordelia: Character and Performance; S.Werner Bibliography Index