J. Dover Wilson

Originally published in 1927, this anthology covers the five major poets at the forefront of an artistic movement, which is widely known and regarded retrospectively as Romanticism. Poems have been selected from the works of Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley and Keats to be illustrative of each writer's multifaceted and innovative styles as well as to be revealing and exemplary of the cultural atmosphere, social conditions and shifting mood, in which the poetry was located, produced and circulated. Poems include Wordsworth's Lines Written in Early Spring, Coleridge's The Ancient Mariner and Byron's She Walks in Beauty. Notably, the poems are arranged chronologically and detailed explanatory notes are included for reference. This book serves as both an introduction and overview to the literary luminaries of the period and will be of considerable value to scholars of English literature as well as to scholars in cognate fields.

First published in 1923, this book consists of a series of papers written by Pollard, W. W. Greg, E. Maunde Thompson, J. Dover Wilson, and R. W. Chambers, all advocates of the then newly-established New Bibliography. The book was assembled with the intention of strengthening the argument that three pages of Sir Thomas More in the Harleian Manuscript at the British Museum were written in Shakespeare's own hand. The well-established scholars examine the case from several different angles, considering the handwriting in comparison to the known versions of Shakespeare's signature, the bibliographical links between these three pages and the 'good' quartos, and the content of the pages in relation to political ideas expressed elsewhere in Shakespeare. The volume also includes plates of Shakespeare's signatures, analysis of individual letter shapes and parts of the manuscript, and a special transcript of the pages in question.

This book, which was originally an expansion of Professor Dover Wilson's Sandars lectures of 1934, has been out of print for many years and is now reissued. It was the first of three books in which the author presented his long and painstaking work on Shakespeare's Hamlet and deals with the textual problems. What Happens in Hamlet deals with the dramatic problems and the text itself, with annotations, is published as one of the volumes of the New Shakespeare.

This book, which was originally an expansion of Professor Dover Wilson's Sandars lectures of 1934, has been out of print for many years and is now reissued. It was the first of three books in which the author presented his long and painstaking work on Shakespeare's Hamlet and deals with the textual problems. What Happens in Hamlet deals with the dramatic problems and the text itself, with annotations, is published as one of the volumes of the New Shakespeare.

Dr Dover Wilson examines Falstaff's role in the two parts of Henry IV and his relationship to the Prince. Like most other Shakespearean scholars he had accepted. Bradley's portrait as shown in The Rejection of Falstaff, until (as he writes) he 'began checking it with yet another protrait - that which I found in the pages of Shakespeare himself. As the result of much recent work on the two parts of Henry IV, a new Falstaff stands before me, as fascinating as Bradley's, certainly quite as human, but different; and beside him stands a still more unexpected Prince Hal. The discovery throws all my previous ideas out of focus.' As the reviewer in the Times Literary Supplement wrote, Falstaff 'is no hero, as the romantics have tried to make him out, nor is he merely a typical and traditional stage-butt. But he is Falstaff riding for a fall; and when he takes his toss he is up again in still unconquerable effrontery and humour … The Prince as we watch him through Dr Dover Wilson's eyes growing in grace, first in chivalry and then in justice, we do more than observe the making of a hero-king. We get to know a very lovable, faulty, generous, noble-minded young man; and a character in the play whose scenes are so far from being mere padding between Falstaff's that the whole is seen as a masterpiece of construction.'

John Dover Wilson’s What Happens in Hamlet is a classic of Shakespeare criticism. First published in 1935, it is still being read today throughout the English-speaking world and has been widely translated. Hamlet has excited more curiosity and aroused more debate than any other play ever written. Is Hamlet really mad? Does he really see his father’s ghost, or is it an illusion? Is the ghost good or bad? What does it all mean? Dover Wilson brings out the significance of each part of the complex action, against the background. His analysis of the play emphasises Shakespeare’s dramatic art and shows how the play must be seen and heard to be understood. This is a readable, entertaining and scholarly book.

John Dover Wilson (1881–1969) was a renowned scholar of Renaissance drama, particularly known for his work on Shakespeare. Originally published in 1932, this book, in accordance with its subtitle, takes the form of an interpretative 'adventure' through Shakespeare's life. In the absence of biographical detail, Wilson provides us with a personal perspective that is nevertheless rigorously faithful to the known facts regarding the life, the plays and the surrounding historical context. More broadly, the text is also concerned with the question of how a poetic or creative talent is manifested and nurtured. This concise and highly readable volume will be invaluable for anyone with an interest in Shakespeare, literary criticism, or the history of English literature.