Shakespeare's Literary Authorship Book

List of figures

List of abbreviations

Introduction 'Printless foot': finding Shakespeare 1

Pt. I Rethinking Shakespearean Authorship 29

1 The epic spear of Achilles: Self-concealing authorship in The Rape of Lucrece, Troilus and Cressida, and Hamlet 31

2 The forms of 'counter-laureate authorship': Titus Andronicus, A Midsummer Night's Dream, I Henry IV, The Tempest 63

3 Lyric poetry in Shakespearean theatre: As You Like It, I Henry IV, Henry V, The Tempest 90

4 Books and theatre in Shakespeare's plays: Richard III, Love's Labour's Lost, Romeo and Juliet, Othello 119

Pt. II Fictions of Authorship 147

5 'Show of love ... bookish rule': Books, theatre, and literary history in 2 Henry VI 149

6 Halting sonnets: The comedy of Petrarchan desire in Much Ado about Nothing 179

7 The profession of consciousness: Hamlet, tragedy, and the literary eternal 203

8 Venting rhyme for a mockery: Cymbeline and national romance 234

Works cited 265

Index 289