Browse Items (78 total)

Ravenscroft’s Preface reflects the precipitous drop in the popularity of Titus Andronicus, now seen as “a heap of Rubbish,” needing revision to be made acceptable.

Title Page
Cast of Characters: Ravenscroft’s play separates characters by national and ethnic affiliation.

Page 10: Ravenscroft’s greater focus on Aaron the Moor reveals how compelling Shakespeare’s villain remained. Here, Tamora showily presents Aaron for Saturninus’s approval
Page 11: Aaron discusses the invisibility of his blushes. Later in the play,…

Bennett’s tale allows readers to imagine what it would be like to meet Shakespeare, depicting him as generous, protective, and thoughtful. Here Shakespeare and a fiery and impulsively kind Ben Jonson collaborate in helping the children.

Page 305: Motivated both by generosity and self-interest, Shakespeare’s other associates volunteer to foster the children and to add Nick, the protagonist, to the King’s Men. Bennett’s Shakespeare alone thinks to ask Nick what he wants.

Pages 308-309: Bennett imagines a sparkling dinner party bringing together the children, Shakespeare, and Shakespeare’s family and theatrical associates.

Title Page. Benson’s edition of Shakespeare’s poems included the first new edition of the Sonnets since their initial publication in 1609. The volume contains a mix of Shakepseare’s sonnets and songs as well as works by other authors.

In reprinting sonnet 108, Benson changes the text of the poem, replacing the poem’s address to the beloved as “sweet boy” with address to a “sweet-love,” removing the reference to a male beloved.

“Selfe flattery of her beautie”: Benson’s headings sometimes imply that the poem’s object of desire is female, when generally scholars assume that the bulk of the sonnets are addressed to a male beloved. Here Benson combines sonnets 115-117 under…

"The Picture of True Love" : Benson rearranged the order of the poems in the 1609 Sonnets volume, arranging sonnets under thematic headings that presented them as a general lyric description of love and inhibited readings integrating the poems as a…