Sir William Empson was an English literary critic and poet, widely influential for his practice of closely reading literary works. He was Head of the English Department at the University of Sheffield, UK.John Haffenden is Emeritus Professor of English Literature at the University of Sheffield, Senior Research Fellow of the Institute of English Studies, University of London, and a Fellow of the British Academy.

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• AcknowledgmentsIntroductionPart I Facets of Shakespeare Texts1 Shakespeare’s Angel2 Evidence for Herbert3 Mr W.H. 4 The Strengths of the Shrew5 Shakespeare and Dover Wilson6 Hamlet and History7 The Pride of Othello8 The Horrors of King Lear9 Next Time, a Wheel of Fire10 King Lear: A Letter to the EditorsContexts11 The Cheerful Object of Critical Analysis12 Elizabethan Rogue13 Pantheism and the New Astronomy14 Playing Shakespeare15 The Length of Performance of an Elizabethan Play16 Christopher Marlowe17 Two Proper Crimes18 Shakespeare’s Pronunciation19 Reflections on Shakespeare20 What Shakespeare Planned For21 The Ogden Portrait of Shakespeare22 Insets and Epiphanies23 L.C. Knights on A.C. Bradley24 Paradoxes in the Fairie Queene V and VIPart II Controversies25 Last Words on George Herbert26 The Ancient Mariner: An Answer to Robert Penn Warren27 Magnificent Cuckolds28 Basic and Communication29 Basic English and the Modern WorldPart III Memoirs30 Chinese Food31 Letter from China32 Chinese Bandits33 A Chinese University34 Wartime Recollections35 Pei-Ta before The Siege36 Teaching English in the Far East and England37 The Queen and IAppendixThree Critics on One PoemIndex