Shakespeare, A lover's complaint, and John Davies of Hereford / Brian Vickers.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Vickers, Brian.

Contributor:

Horace Howard Furness Memorial Library (University of Pennsylvania)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616--Authorship.

Shakespeare, William.

Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616.

Authorship.

Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. Lover's complaint.

Davies, John, 1565?-1618.

Davies, John.

Love poetry, English--History and criticism.

Love poetry, English.

Physical Description:

xii, 329 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2007.

Summary:

Brian Vickers addresses the fundamental issue of what Shakespeare actually wrote, and how this is determined. In recent years, Shakespeare's authorship has been claimed for two poems, the lyric 'Shall I die?' and A Funerall Elegye. These attributions have been accepted into certain major editions of his works. Through a fresh examination of the evidence, Professor Vickers shows that neither poem has the stylistic and imaginative qualities we associate with Shakespeare. In other words, they are 'counterfeits', in the sense of anonymously authored works wrongly presented as Shakespeare's. He identifies the poet and dramatist John Ford as the actual author of the Elegye.

Contents:

1 Thomas Thorpe and the 1609 Sonnets 7

2 John Davies of Hereford: a life of writing 15

3 A Lover's Complaint and Spenserian pastoral 47

4 'Poore women's faults': narration and judgement in the 'Female Complaint' 76

Part II Foreground

5 A poem anatomized: the rival claims 121

6 A Lover's Complaint in Davies's canon 204

Appendix 1 The text of A Lover's Complaint 267

Appendix 2 / John Davies Uncollected Poems 278.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 307-324) and index.

ISBN:

0521859123

9780521859127

OCLC:

71347549