Shakespeare the Theatre-Poet (Clarendon Paperbacks) Book

How subject to interpretation is Shakespeare? The valid options his plays afford can seem infinite, yet they are not. This book comes fully to terms with Shakespeare's openness to interpretation while respecting the primacy of his creative presence. Hapgood sees Shakespeare the theatre-poet as making theatre not only by outlining an imaginary world, but also by providing guidelines for its enactment and reception, implying in each of his plays a distinctive rapport between the playwright, the actors, and the audience. Hapgood demonstrates that these guidelines may be found through study of the range and limits of the options that each text affords, and through close reading of several plays--particularly Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth--he provides an aesthetic for Shakespeare's theatre poetry that includes the author along with the actors and audience in the event that occurs when a play is performed.