The Life of William Shakespeare – A Critical Biography

Lois Potter recently retired as Ned B. Allen Chair at the University of Delaware. She has also taught at the Universities of Aberdeen, Leicester, and Paris III-Sorbonne Nouvelle, and at Tsuda College, Tokyo. Her publications include Twelfth Night: Text and Performance (1986), the Arden edition of The Two Noble Kinsmen (1997, 2001), and Shakespeare in Performance: Othello (2002). She is also the editor of two volumes in the Revels History of Drama in English series (1981 and 1984), and has been a frequent reviewer of plays for the Times Literary Supplement, Shakespeare Quarterly, and Shakespeare Bulletin.

List of Illustrations vi Preface and Acknowledgments vii List of Abbreviations x The Shakespeare Family Tree xii 1 Born into the World : 1564 1571 1 2 Nemo SibiNascitur : 1571 1578 21 3 Hic et Ubique : 1578 1588 40 4 This Man s Art and That Man s Scope : 1588 1592 64 5 Tigers Hearts : 1592 1593 86 6 The Dangerous Year : 1593 1594 106 7 Our Usual Manager of Mirth : 1594 1595 134 8 The Strong st and Surest Way to Get : Histories, 1595 1596 162 9 When Love Speaks : Tragedy and Comedy, 1595 1596 181 10 You Had a Father; Let Your Son Say So : 1596 1598 201 11 Unworthy Scaffold : 1598 1599 231 12 These Words Are Not Mine : 1599 1601 258 13 Looking Before and After : 1600 1603 277 14 This Most Balmy Time : 1603 1605 300 15 Past the Size of Dreaming : 1606 1609 330 16 Like an Old Tale : 1609 1611 360 17 The Second Burden : 1612 1616 384 18 In the Mouths of Men : 1616 and After 414 Bibliography 443 Index 475