Age of Shakespeare (1579–1631)

REVIEWS

“Both volumes are excellently done, with knowledge, judgement, and a pleasant touch of vivacity. It is no easy matter to make a text-book both informing and readable ; but here the feat is accomplished. I have read ‘The Age of Shakespeare’ with unflagging interest and pleasure. Everywhere one has the restful sensation of dealing with men of competent scholarship and sound critical instinct. Especially valuable, to my thinking, is the chronological table of the chief publications of each year from 1579 to 1630.”—Mr. William Archer in the Morning Leader.

“These two volumes are, in short, a notable accession to the useful series to which they belong, and they constitute a luminous aid to the interpretation alike of the scope and quality of the literary activity which has rendered the ‘Age of Shakespeare’ classic in the annals of English literature.”—Standard.

“The book is a well-informed and well-connected and intelligent exposition of its subject. It is more than a mere handbook. It is a history, though on a small scale.”—Journal of Education.

“An excellent aid to the systematic study of one the greatest periods of our literature.”—Daily News.

“ ‘The Age of Shakespeare’ is fresh and unconventional in its brisk outlook, and shows not a trace of pedantry in its critical dicta. The book’s aim is to give us a quick but comprehensive view of the main body of Elizabethan literature and to assess its documentary and aesthetic value in a running critical commentary, and in both these respects ‘The Age of Shakespeare’ is an achievement quite out of the common.”—Academy and Literature.

“Brief outlines are given of every notable career in letters, and pithy critical estimates are added which reveal wide reading, scholarly care, and independent conclusions. These two volumes are, in short, a notable accession to the useful series to which they belong, and they constitute a luminous aid to the interpretation alike of the scope and quality of the literary activity which has rendered the ‘Age of Shakespeare’ classic in the annals of English literature.” —Standard.

“The level maintained by the collaborators seems very high.”—Manchester Guardian.

“An excellent manual of Elizabethan literature. The criticism in both parts of the work is rapid, vigorous, vivacious, suggestive and independent.” —Glasgow Herald.

“Rarely, even in these days of stern compression, is so much bestowed in small compass.”—Leeds Mercury.

“The sections devoted to a study of Shakespeare’s plays are full of information, and edited with scholarly insight and impartiality.”—Yorkshire Post.

“The amount of scholarship condensed into these little books is astonishing. The student is not only amply supplied with information, but put on the right R track towards a just appreciation of the sixteenth-century authors. The styles are discussed, their peculiarities sharply defined and illustrated, with the result that the reader, instead of being left with merely an accumulation of historical material, which is all that can be got from the majority of text-books, derives a very good working knowledge of the age. The books do not pretend to supply the place of personal study, they are not ‘crammers”” handbooks; they are admirable guides and incentives.”—Liverpool Mercury.