Understanding Shakespeare

Ever since they were written, people have been commenting on Shakespeare's plays and poems - and by extension on Shakespeare himself.

Shakespeare criticism has been attempted by some of the finest minds of the last 400 years: fellow writers such as Dr. Samuel Johnson, John Dryden, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Matthew Arnold George Orwell and TS Eliot were joined by philosophers of the calibre of William Hazlitt and Thomas Carlyle, and later by professional academics. In 2007, even Bill Bryson got in on the act.

This section is home to some of the better, more genuinely illuminating Shakespeare commentary both old and new, and you will also find material specifically for students and their instructors. Mainly, though, it's for anyone who wants to dig a little deeper beneath the text. Click the appropriate link for further details of the era you're most interested in:

16th Century · 17th Century · 18th Century · 19th Century · 20th Century · 21st Century