Shakespeare's Reception Research Articles

Original Pronunciation and the United States: The Case of <i>A Midsummer Night’s Dream</i> by Paul Meier (2010, 2012)

In 2004 Romeo and Juliet in Original Pronunciation (OP) was staged at Shakespeare’s Globe, inaugurating what Crystal would later define the OP movement (2016) - a movement aiming to restore the original sound of both the literary and non-literary works of the past. While academic literature suggests an irregular theatrical interest in the Shakespearean OP in the UK, it also demonstrates that such restoratory projects have proven increasingly appealing to the US audiences. The reasons why the North American theater goers' are attracted to the Shakespearean OP remain unclear. Based on a qualitative analysis of interviews with Paul Meier, the director of the theatrical and radio production A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2010, 2012) and two of his cast members, and complementing the findings with the study of promotional and non-promotional articles concerning the productions, this paper aims to shed light on the rationale behind the North American fascination with the Shakespearean OP. As Meier’s reflections gravitate towards the identity of the US as a former British colony, this study, relying extensively on literature review, is carried out both through the lens of literary/cultural history and of historical linguistics. Finally, though limited in its scope, this paper intends to pave the way for further studies on the relationship between the allure of the OP and the US culture, and thereby to enrich the area of investigation concerning Shakespeare's reception in the US and his role in the American culture.

Translation Principles of Vadim Shershenevich and Their Implementation in Translations of Playwrights of William Shakespeare: “King John” and “Cymbeline”

The article is devoted to comprehension of the translational reception of William Shakespeare’s work in the legacy of Vadim Shershenevich (1893—1942) in the context of his author's translation strategies. The novelty of the study is connected with the identification of Shershenevich’s translation strategies as an adherent of “accurate translation”, with the reconstruction of the history of the poet’s translation achievements in the field of Shakespeariana. The authors comprehend Shershenevich’s report on the principles of Shakespeare’s translation, preserved in the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art funds, and analyze the application of these principles (equilinearity, equirhythm, preservation of rhyme and figurative structure) in the little-known translation of the chronicle “King John” and in the translation of the play “Cymbeline”. The question is raised about Shershenevich’s two main translation strategies in relation to Shakespeare: accurate translation (in the texts under study) and free adaptation of texts for the stage, corresponding to the avant-garde understanding of theater as an art that develops outside of direct dependence on literature (when he works with Shakespeare as a librettist, in particular, participating in the creation of the comic opera Gemini based on Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night). The relevance of the study is related to the need to rethink the scope and significance of Shakespeare's reception in the culture of the Silver Age.

Charles William Stubbs and Shakespeare: The Incarnation and the English Cult of Literature at the Turn of the Twentieth Century

On April 23, 1899, Charles William Stubbs, Dean of Ely, delivered the Shakespeare Sermon in Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon. The Shakespeare sermon was later expanded as one of Stubbs's Hulsean lectures (1904-1905) in Cambridge, published in the volume The Christ of English Poetry in 1906. This article shows how Stubbs's profound analysis of Shakespeare as the main English Renaissance literary representation of the personality of Christ is a unique religious and literary reflection on Frederick Denison Maurice's social theology of the incarnation at the turn of the twentieth century. This distinctiveness is reinforced, as this article explains, by the dialogue that Stubbs establishes with the ideas of Auguste Comte, Walter Bagehot, Giuseppe Mazzini, and Edward Dowden, which constitutes a significant and unexplored chapter of the history of Shakespeare's reception and a compelling illustration of William R. McKelvy's concept of the "English cult of literature," that is, of how religion functioned as a powerful instrument of literary interpretation as literature served the purposes of religious creed at the turn of the century.

The Afterlife of Shakespeare’s Sonnets, By Jane Kingsley-Smith

In the thriving field of Shakespeare reception studies there has been remarkably little attention paid to his poetry, and particularly, the Sonnets—the subject of Jane Kingsley-Smith’s brilliant and entirely welcome new book. This omission replicates something of a gap in the afterlife of the texts themselves, which have been read somewhat unevenly but—as Kingsley-Smith conclusively shows—more continually since their initial 1609 publication than has previously been recognized. Theoretical work by Emma Smith and Laurie Maguire that reads source texts as traumatic memories, having certain moments of recurrence through time, is usefully invoked early in the study and provides a helpful model for rethinking the Sonnets’ reception (82). Kingsley-Smith reveals how certain historical moments previously thought to have had little interest in reading the Sonnets are in fact crucial to shaping their reception; the mid- and late seventeenth century, for instance, mark not periods of neglect, but an important engagement with...

Spectral Authority: The Presence of Shakespeare in Biblical Scholarship

Abstract: Recent scholarship has seen a spate of interest in the intertwined interpretation histories of Shakespeare and the Bible, especially in how biblical hermeneutics shaped Shakespeare's reception. This article inverts that trend by investigating the presence of Shakespeare as an analogy, reference and model in Biblical Studies at the end of the twentieth and beginning of the twenty-first century. It demonstrates how Shakespeare has provided a set of images around authority and performance on which biblical scholars have drawn to frame and articulate their ideas about the Bible, and it suggests future possibilities for interdisciplinary work.

Shakespeare as German Author ed. by John McCarthy

Reviewed by: Shakespeare as German Author ed. by John McCarthy Peter Höyng John McCarthy, ed. Shakespeare as German Author. Amsterdam: Brill, 2018. 242 pp. This is an important bilingual work on Shakespeare reception in the Germanspeaking world, and a significant addition to Roger Paulin's The Critical Reception of Shakespeare in Germany 1682–1914 (2003), his edited essay collection Shakespeare im 18. Jahrhundert (2007), as well as Hans-Jürgen Blinn's Shakespeare-Rezeption: Die Diskussion um Shakespeare in Deutschland (1982), the latter mainly providing documentary resources. In light of these three previous contributions, John McCarthy's Shakespeare as German Author stands out in regards to the time span it covers (focusing on the late eighteenth to mid-nineteenth century), its thematic focus on literary and theater reception, and its emphasis on theories of translation and cultural transfer. At nearly a third of the book, McCarthy's contribution serves not only as an introduction, but a crucial chapter in its own right. His meticulous research on the making of Shakespeare as a German "writer alongside Goethe and Schiller in full accord with the German spirit" is presented through the discussion of three texts by Christoph Martin Wieland, Johann Joachim Eschenburg, and Georg Gottfried Gervinus. These texts are the "primary markers" for introducing Shakespeare into German-speaking culture in the years 1750–1850. McCarthy's chronological overview of the German-speaking Shakespeare reception will be of great value for both newcomers and those well-versed in the topic, since all three texts have long been overlooked by scholars despite their valuable theoretical reflections on the aesthetic issues that Shakespeare's plays presented at the time. Another strength of McCarthy's essay is that he broadens his evaluation of Shakespeare's reception history by incorporating two frameworks: cultural transfer, which also takes into account theoretical considerations of translation, and "communicative communities." McCarthy's essay alone makes the volume worthwhile and, as a whole, this book will be indispensable for anyone interested in researching Shakespeare translations in the Age of Goethe. Till Kinzel's essay, "Johann Joachim Eschenburgs Shakespeare zwischen Regelpoetik und Genieästhetik," rightly opens the book's chronological trajectory. After all, Eschenburg's thirteen-volume collection of Shakespeares theatralische Werke (1775–82) completed "Wieland's project of translating all of Shakespeare's plays." Kinzel's well-written and well-researched essay takes its main cue from Eschenburg's Über W. Shakespeare (1787), "the first scholarly monograph on the poet written in German," and situates Eschenburg's theoretical interest in literary criticism within a larger network of friends (among them Lessing) and foes on Shakespeare plays. Kinzel treats Eschenburg's mediating position as a paradigm for how Shakespeare presented a litmus test for the poetological discourse of the Enlightenment. Monika Nenon's essay first shows Wieland as a translator of Hamlet (1766) before comparing two theatrical adaptations of Wieland's work: the one by Franz von Heufeld in Vienna (1772), and the other by Friedrich Ludwig Schröder in Hamburg (1777). Most fascinating are her examples for Wieland's adaptive translation, followed by Heufeld's later edits, and Schröder's appropriation not of Wieland but of Heufeld (!). While Nenon's essay is not guided by a larger theoretical framework, it is an important showcase of how theatrical confinements and moral taste came to bear on adaptations of Hamlet. Lisa Beesley's contribution compares two translations of the same work: Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream by Christoph Martin Wieland, Ein St. [End Page 374] Johannis Nachts-Traum (1766) and August Wilhelm von Schlegels Der Sommernachtstraum (1797). Beesley's appraisal is especially persuasive because she does not attempt to prove one translator superior to the other but brings them into dialogue and thereby follows Wieland's notion of translation as a collaborative project. Beesly's examples of comparative deletions and puns are both informative and instructive. Regrettably, the author provides no further context as to why Wieland used for his translation the Catholic holiday "St. Johannis" instead of "Sommernacht" as Schlegel did. Astrid Dröse's first-rate article, "Der Weimarer Macbeth (1800/1801) im Licht der Kulturtransfer-Forschung," makes explicit what her cocontributors have so far done implicitly, for she...

“Mark the music”: Shakespearean female characters in contemporary rock music

Through an investigation grounded on the theoretical and methodological guidelines provided by women's studies and reader response theories, this contribution aims to consider the ways in which Shakespeare's female characters are used and reshaped in the lyrics of rock songs written in English by male singer-songwriters, between the 1960s and the 1990s. Given the amplitude of the topic and the ungraspable nature of such fields as popular culture and pop-Shakespeare, the author does not (and cannot) aim to be exhaustive, but rather addresses the issue by selecting four characters, Juliet, Ophelia, Cordelia, and Lady Macbeth, whose musical alter egos will be analysed by the close reading of a selection of songs written and sung by rock singer-songwriters chosen for their representativeness and their popularity. The analysis will try and answer the following questions: which aspects of the dramatic characters are highlighted or, on the contrary, omitted in the songs? What is the function of this musical use of Shakespeare's work? Through their musical identity, do these female characters reinforce or undermine the socio-cultural and psychological oppression of women characteristic of a patriarchal culture? What can the role of these musical offshoots play in the study of Shakespeare's reception?

A History of Japanese Theatre ed. by Jonah Salz

Reviewed by: A History of Japanese Theatre ed. by Jonah Salz Deidre Onishi A History of Japanese Theatre. Edited by Jonah Salz. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016; pp. 590. Why read a history of Japanese theatre? And why read this one? Samuel Leiter has written eloquently in several books on Japanese theatre, including his Historical Dictionary of Japanese Traditional Theatre and books specifically about kabuki. Karen Brazell contributed analyses and texts with Traditional Japanese Theatre: An Anthology of Plays. What makes A History of Japanese Theatre unique is the comprehensive examination of playwrights, performance, and criticism replete with creative insight and information on traditional forms, as well as an extensive discussion of modern and contemporary works. It is in this comprehensive treatment of Japanese theatre that readers see the synergy among social, religious, and artistic changes from ritualized performance to ultra-realistic censures of Japanese politics. In doing so the book is useful for readers interested in performance from Western, Asian, African, and Middle Eastern cultures, and those interested in the eccentricities that define social interactions with art. Salz notes in the introduction that “this book aims to give full weight to this rich range of performance, tipping the normal scholarly balance toward the neglected modern, and from literary analysis to performance” (xxxviii). The book hits the mark. The authors come from across all disciplines and performance forms. The topics include the standard major forms like noh, kyogen, bunraku, and kabuki, but with a new perspective. For example, instead of merely another chapter on kabuki, Julie Iezzi focuses on its performances of superheroes and femme fatales. Other chapters cover playwriting, theatre architecture, and theatre criticism, including a particularly interesting discussion by Nakano Masaaki titled “Modern Criticism: Wrestling with Western Realism.” There are “interludes” that focus on unique topics, such as Suzuki Masae’s look at Okinawan theatre. The final section, “Intercultural Influences,” examines intercultural influences on Japanese theatre, including a chapter titled “Seven Stages of Shakespeare Reception” by Daniel Gallimore and Minami Ryuta. In addition, Salz contributes chapters on “Traditional Training Internationally” and “Intercultural Theatre: Fortuitous Encounters”—areas in which he has firsthand knowledge. Finally, it is a joy to have a foreword by the recently deceased James Brandon and an epilogue by Eugenio Barba, both experts in their respective fields as scholars and practitioners. The book includes several helpful sections and many photos showing moments of performance. It begins with a timeline by Rachel Payne showing the development of Japanese theatre forms, with indicators for when the form was in its infancy, at its height, and in decline. There are inserts titled “focuses” and “spotlights” that provide succinct explanations and reevaluations of events, performance elements, and people. An insert on Mishima Yukio by Laurence Kominz made everything else I have read on Mishima make sense. Downplaying his ultra-nationalistic character, Kominz emphasizes Mishima’s creativity and daring. The book is filled with such revelations. Each astute analysis of performance forms, such as kagura, katari, and Okinawan theatre, as well as contemporary theatre, reveals the fascinating story of how Japanese society was embraced by some artists and felt the lash of criticism by others. For example, in the Okinawa kingdom, theatre and dance was used by the bureaucracy to create performances of Okinawan legends to impress envoys from China. Postwar, Kinoshita Junji’s A Japanese Called Otto critically examined Japanese fascism and the push of the military into China. The culmination of such diverse research is that the volume clarifies the relationships among the forms and between theatre and society. We learn what the people did, not only what they wrote. For undergraduates, the progression of the essays provides the necessary foundation for understanding the composite elements and social implications for each of the forms. While many instructors do not have the luxury of devoting an entire semester to Japanese theatre, the book is worthwhile to require for theatre and performance studies students, because it offers many examples of writing about theatre, as well as stories of the geneses of performance. It [End Page 174] is an ideal reference book to have on reserve for students. The writing is consistently energetic; reading one chapter readies the reader for the next...

Performing Shakespeare in Europe

AbstractThe history of performing Shakespeare in Europe and the establishment of European Shakespeare Studies have been closely connected with European culture and politics. The emergence of the European Shakespeare Research Association, ESRA, has coincided with the fall of Communism and the political transformations in Europe after 1989, as well as the growing professionalisation and internationalisation of Shakespeare criticism. In the twenty‐first century, European studies of Shakespeare continue to flourish, with vibrant research centres extending from Murcia in Spain to Zaporizhzhia in Ukraine, and with a dynamic European Shakespeare Festivals Network. At the heart of European Shakespeare Studies has been the examination of Shakespeare's reception in different national traditions across Europe. Performance criticism has played a crucial role in this process, given that theatre as a medium transcends linguistic barriers, while encouraging local traditions of translation and staging. Productions of Shakespeare have also provided a forum for articulating current political and social concerns, particularly in times of censorship, which has made them exceptionally appealing to scholars interested in national cultures and histories. This article outlines four aspects that represent Shakespeare's relationship with European performance: theatrical exchanges between England and the Continent as the beginning of the European Shakespeare tradition, translation as an integral part of stage practice, the significance of performance criticism in European Shakespeare Studies and the notion of a shared European theatre tradition. Their discussion combines elements of a historical narrative with a critical overview. The article concludes with new perspectives in the twenty‐first century Shakespeare productions, as the Eurozone debt crisis and immigration crisis pose new challenges and responsibilities for artists and academics.

Шекспир в творчестве позднего Гоголя

<p>Н. В. Гоголя едва ли можно назвать ярким продолжателем шекспировских традиций в русской литературе. В отличие от собрата по перу А. С. Пушкина он не писал исторических пьес в духе великого англичанина, не перерабатывал его «проблемных пьес». Тем не менее исключение Гоголя из истории шекспировской рецепции в России лишает ее одной небезынтересной страницы.</p><p>Гоголь — один из многих русских писателей, внимательно изучивших Шекспира, но не подражавших английскому поэту. Шекспир открывался ему постепенно: от чтения апологетических статей и вольных переводов Н. А. Полевого в «Московском телеграфе» к знакомству с Шекспиром по-немецки и по-французски (по всей видимости, писатель пытался познакомиться с Шекспиром и в оригинале).</p><p>Зрелый Гоголь видит в Шекспире не только предмет поклонения, но и единомышленника в борьбе за духовное возрождение человечества. Не случайно в произведениях Гоголя 1840-х годов обнаруживаются шекспировские реминисценции. Вершиной гоголевских размышлений о Шекспире стала работа над книгой «Выбранные места из переписки с друзьями», в которой Гоголь предложил концепцию нравственного театра, возвеличивающего человеческое достоинство. В главе «О театре, об одностороннем взгляде на театр и вообще об односторонности» он возражал графу А. П. Толстому (впоследствии обер-прокурору Святейшего синода), считавшему театр греховным увеселением. Театр, полагал Гоголь, имеет «нравственное благотворное влияние» на зрителей, а первый из авторов — Шекспир. Писатель не вступает в споры о вероисповедовании английского драматурга: Шекспир честен и откровенен со своим зрителем, что позволяет ему говорить о вечной Истине, к которой так стремился Гоголь.</p>

Gynophobia and Anti-republicanism in Thomas Mann’s Doctor Faustus

Why does Adrian Leverkühn choose a Shakespeare play for his major first and his first twelve-tone composition? Why in particular a Shakespeare comedy? And why, of all comedies, Love’s Labour’s Lost? Why does he start working on it in Munich? Why does his work there soon come to a halt? Why does it prosper only in Italy? And why does he eventually return to Upper Bavaria so as to complete it? Why is he said to have completed the opera exactly one hundred years ago? And why, finally, is it first performed only after the outbreak of the war and then, surprisingly, in a German adaptation? In order to answer these and similar questions, this paper sets out to re-contextualise Doktor Faustus with regard to discourse history and re-read the novel from a gender-theoretical perspective. The leading hypothesis is that Thomas Mann’s novel belongs to the proto-history of feminist Shakespeare reception, an assumption to be substantiated through an analysis of settings, locations and the constructions of space.

Staging Timon of Athens in the Downturn

This paper examines the challenges of localizing Shakespeare though theatrical adaptation, and considers some of the problems of “presentist” approaches to the early-modern text. It analyses the production of Timon of Athens at the Royal National Theatre, London in 2012, directed by Nicholas Hytner and starring Simon Russell Beale. This was a defiantly topical and localized interpretation of the play that made reference to the current economic downturn in the U.K and Europe, and the recent protests in the City of London by the Occupy movement. The paper discusses how significantly the text was revised and adapted to fit these topical British concerns about London, politics and the finance sector, and assesses how successfully these changes were developed in performance. The paper also considers in what other ways Shakespeare and Middleton’s text has been received in recent literary criticism of the play in order to better understand how the drama has been interpreted as a commentary on the present economic situation. In particular, the theme of linguistic and symbolic breakdown in the drama can be related to contemporary arguments in political philosophy, such as by Slavoj ?i?ek, regarding language, authority and the social order. The paper also speculates on how the drama lends itself to ideas of politics, and in what ways the London production illustrated some limitations of the presentist approach. The paper finally speculates on the ramifications of contemporary Shakespeare reception in local and global contexts.

Meiji Japanese Shakespeare as a Source of Wisdom

Japan absorbed Shakespeare into its culture when there was a sudden influx of western culture into the country after Japan emerged from its period of isolation. Even after the closure of the country came to the end, the legacy of feudal Edo (1603-1868), Japan remained in its culture. Westernisation was equal to modernisation to Japanese at that time, and Shakespeare's works were thought to be books to teach people. The Victorian Shakespeare (modified according to the taste of its readers and audience in addition to the morality of the time) imported to Japan was suitable for the social trend, and the bard himself was treated as a source of wisdom. This paper explores the context of adapting Shakespeare into Japanese culture at the early stage since 1880s, and examines how Shakespeare and his works were treated. The very early Japanese translations were heavily influenced by the way Shakespeare's works were received in Victorian England, the cultural legacy of the Edo period, and the prevalent trend in Japan of admiring the West and combining Japanese and Western cultural elements. In other words, the ‘proper' Shakespeare by Victorian norms was presented to Japan, where he was idolized as an embodiment of Western wisdom. Definitions of the Bard in Japanese stories of heroes, books on drama history, and dictionaries of biography are analysed in this paper. Through the exploration, the paper concludes that Shakespeare was regarded as a source of wisdom in the early Shakespeare reception in Japan.

Shakespeare, Shipwrecks, and the Great War: Shakespeare's Reception in Wartime and Post-War Britain

Early twentieth-century writing abundantly employs the combined metaphor of tempests and shipwrecks at sea, which is often applied to the Great War. Of special interest are those instances where the metaphor occurs in conjunction with Shakespeare, his work, and his afterlife. On the one hand, this practice reveals the ease with which Shakespeare's work could be applied to the unprecedented events of world history. On the other hand, the storm and shipwreck metaphor also brings into focus the challenge to Shakespeare's reputation during the wartime years. However, innovations in teaching and the modernist tendency to quote from the early modern canon ultimately guarantee the continued popularity of the playwright and poet.

Shakespeare Reception in China

Since the name of Shakespeare was first introduced into China, Shakespeare in China has witnessed several different development phases in the fields of translating, performing and criticism. In whichever phase the characteristic of Shakespearean studies in China was closely associated with the historical, cultural and political situation at that time, the complete disappearance from the Chinese public life during the Cultural Revolution, for instance. Thereupon, some scholar has asserted that the Chinese have misunderstood Shakeseare, even appropriated him for their own purposes. Although the political element did play an important leading role in China’s reception of Shakespeare, it is doubtless that any literature must have its potential social function, no matter in terms of artistic or social value. So is the case with Shakespeare in China. The history of Shakespeare reception in China has completely mirrored the Chinese’s seeking after truth from western literature at different historical stages.

Shakespeare Reception in India and The Netherlands until the Early Twentieth Century

In his article "Shakespeare Reception in India and The Netherlands until the Early Twentieth Century" Vikram Singh Thakur locates Shakespeare in two different cultural contexts by looking at its reception in The Netherlands and India. His analysis is based on the fact that Shakespeare was a foreign playwright to both cultures yet both have gradually assimilated his works into their respective cultures and made him, probably, the most performed foreign playwright since the 1870s. Thakur aims at understanding how the reception of a work in different cultures is mediated by various social, cultural, historical, and ideological sieves through which the work gets filtered and reaches the target audience.

Shakespeare reception in China

Since the name of Shakespeare was first introduced into China, Shakespeare in China has witnessed several different development phases in the fields of translating, performing and criticism. In whichever phase the characteristic of Shakespearean studies in China was closely associated with the historical, cultural and political situation at that time, the complete disappearance from the Chinese public life during the Cultural Revolution, for instance. Thereupon, some scholar has asserted that the Chinese have misunderstood Shakeseare, even appropriated him for their own purposes. Although the political element did play an important leading role in China’s reception of Shakespeare, it is doubtless that any literature must have its potential social function, no matter in terms of artistic or social value. So is the case with Shakespeare in China. The history of Shakespeare reception in China has completely mirrored the Chinese’s seeking after truth from western literature at different historical stages.

Dickens and Shakespeare's Household Words

Though Dickens' Shakespearean qualities have often been noted, less attention has been paid to the way that Dickens constructed the terms of his comparison to Shakespeare, scripting the response he received from critics from the nineteenth century to the present and shaping Shakespeare's reception as well. Focusing on The Pickwick Papers and David Copperfield in the context of their Victorian reception, this essay shows how Dickens used Shakespearean quotation to market his characters' quotability, turning them into household words and popularizing Shakespeare's sayings in turn, even as he challenged the universality of quotable phrases.

The French Influence on Early Shakespeare Reception in Spain: Three Cases of Unacknowledged Sources

Shakespeare criticism in Spain began in 1764 and has been on the increase ever since. The main source of information on the subject has long been the tremendous work done by Alfonso Par from the beginning of the 20th century until his death in 1936: without his Shakespeare en la literatura española (1935) none of the later studies could have been written, or at least they would have taken a good deal longer to write. On the other hand, Par’s book includes gaps and errors which need to be corrected. Among these are three cases of supposedly original texts which have turned out to be appropriations of foreign originals whose sources were not acknowledged. This article sets out to analyze these cases, examine their critical implications and thus contribute to a better knowledge and understanding of the Spanish reception of Shakespeare.

Shakespeare and Garrick (review)

Reviewed by: Shakespeare and Garrick Fiona Ritchie Vanessa Cunningham . Shakespeare and Garrick. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008. Pp. vii + 231. $99.00. Vanessa Cunningham's Shakespeare and Garrick throws much needed new light on the role played by the eighteenth-century actor-manager in popularizing Shakespeare. The thrust of this book is to claim a place for Garrick as a literary as well as a theatrical figure. To this end, Cunningham examines a selection of Garrick's Shakespeare alterations (the term is preferred to "adaptation" on the grounds that it was more commonly used in the eighteenth century) which span [End Page 408] his theatrical career: Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, Florizel and Perdita, Antony and Cleopatra, King Lear, and Hamlet. Cunningham takes issue with the two predominant "myths" about Garrick and Shakespeare: firstly, that he restored to the stage plays not seen in their original form since Shakespeare's day and secondly the characterization of Garrick as a "vandal" who "hacked and hewed" the sacred texts of the bard. Cunningham believes the reality is "both more complicated and more interesting" and builds on important work done by Michael Dobson and Jean I. Marsden in taking eighteenth-century alterations seriously in order to elucidate what Shakespeare meant to playgoers and readers in this period. Cunningham is certainly right to argue for alteration as a positive response to Shakespeare in the eighteenth century. The book positions Garrick as working at a cultural moment before what Cunningham terms "the divorce of stage and page" in Shakespeare reception. Garrick, she argues, popularized Shakespeare through his stage presentation of his works but also through the preparation and publication of alterations. What emerges here is an analysis of Garrick's versions of Shakespeare, which, while it takes account of eighteenth-century audience taste, emphasizes the status of these alterations as literary responses to Shakespeare. Cunningham's book does important work in recovering this neglected aspect of Garrick's career but paradoxically this emphasis marginalizes the status of these alterations as performance pieces. Garrick's relationships with several Shakespeare editors are discussed in detail, particularly where this is relevant to the preparation of his alterations. Garrick's Macbeth (first performed in January 1744) is considered in conjunction with Samuel Johnson's Miscellaneous Observations on the Tragedy of Macbeth (which was produced as a specimen for his edition of Shakespeare and published in 1745) and Cunningham also examines Garrick's professional relationship with William Warburton (whose edition of Shakespeare appeared in 1747). In both cases, the implication is that it was the editors who influenced the actor but it is of course possible that the reverse was true and that Garrick's performances made them think differently about the play in question. Most likely they simply had "differing ends," the editors being concerned with textual matters and Garrick with producing a playable script. The inclusion of Antony and Cleopatra in an account of Garrick's popularization of Shakespeare is perhaps questionable since this version was not a stage success; it was performed only six times in 1759 and never revived, although it was printed (unusually before the first performance). However, it does give rise to an interesting discussion of Garrick's collaboration with Edward Capell, who helped the actor prepare this alteration as he worked on his edition (published in 1767–68). Capell is seen as an editor particularly aware of the theatregoing public [End Page 409] but whether this was due to his position as Deputy Examiner of Plays (apparently undertaking more of this work than his superior) or Garrick's influence as a result of their collaboration is left unclear. The final chapter examines George Steevens's potential contribution to Garrick's version of Hamlet: Cunningham identifies some textual amendments to Garrick's preparation copy of the play (housed in the Folger Shakespeare Library) as in Steevens's hand, although she notes that the relationship of this text to what was actually performed in 1772 is unclear. Elsewhere alterations are given a rationale based on textual issues rather than on performance. The analysis of Romeo and Juliet is interesting for its validation of the climactic scene in which the two lovers are granted a final reunion...