Shakespeare Criticism

Matthew Arnold paid the highest tribute to Shakespeare when he said in "To Shakespeare", "Others abide our question. Thou art free". During the last four centuries Shakespeare criticism has become a heavy industry and already comprises more than two hundred thousand individual titles. Anne Bradby’s book, Shakespeare Criticism (1919-1935), a carefully selected collection of critical essays on Shakespeare is a valuable contribution to Shakespeareana. Even within its limited scope, the fine critical insights of eminent Shakespearean critics like J.M. Robertson, Caroline F.E. Spurgeon, E.E. Stoll, W.W. Greg, H. Granville Barker, T.S. Eliot, J. Middleton Murry, H.B. Charlton, G. Wilson Knight and others give the readers a feel of the depth and range of Shakespearean scholarship, illuminate the plays and reveal the limitless opulence of the dramatic wealth of Shakespeare, ‘our contemporary’. The book which has, over the years, justly become a companion of the students of Shakespeare is also sure to fascinate and delight any common reader to whom Shakespeare means something.