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Shakespeare and Co.: Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Dekker, Ben Jonson, Thomas Middleton, John Fletcher and the Other Players in His Story |
Author: Stanley Wells
Published: 2007-04-10 |
List price: $26.00
Our price: $17.16
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As of: November 21st, 2008 07:17:33 PM
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Customer comments on this selection.
 The Players in the Background
It's entirely too easy when reading about Shakespeare to forget there were a lot of other guys writing at the same time as, and in competition with, him. These are the stories of some of those guys, the best of them, and reference is made to their relationship to Shakespeare right along, so it gives a nice feeling of knowing the context. This is not only about "the other players in his story", but also speaks of Shakespeare' less well known collaborations with some of them. It is well to have a Complete Works (Oxford, by my preference) of Will's works in hand while reading this book so you can follow some of the references.
Excellent overview
This study of the circle of writers that made up the theatre world during Shakespeare's career provides both an excellent entry into the subject and also a refreshing reminder to students of the period of the diverse talent that surrounded and interacted with Shakespeare. I particularly enjoyed the opening chapter that gives us a sense of the theatre business in the Elizabethan/Jacobean period and a flesh and blood kind of context for the writers that subsequent chapters will illuminate. I found the study quite readable and well-paced, as well as useful to understanding and evaluating some of the more polemical studies of the period and its most prominent writer. The greatest attribute of the study may be that it makes one want to go back and read or re-read many of the works of Shakespeare's contemporaries.
 Setting the Context
This book is excellent in establishing Shakespeare's context among the other playwrights of his time. I only wish the author had devoted as much time and energy to discussing the later writers (especially Middleton and Webster) as he did with the earlier chapters on Marlowe and Jonson. But for those who think Shakespeare was the only fellow writing plays at the end of the 16th and beginning of the 17th centuries, this is a must-read. Hopefully, someone out there will now read the works of these lesser-known (but wonderful!) English Renaissance dramatists.
Shakespeare & Co.
Stanley Wells is one of the great Shakespeare scholars of this, or any other, generation. His work on the Oxford edition of the Complete Works, the Textual Companion, the Dictionary of Shakespeare and, if I can mention a personal favorite, Shakespeare for All Time, assure his enduring reputation. It was with keen anticipation I picked up this book, then, and I was not disappointed. The book is not groundbreaking, by any means, but is pleasant, erudite, and consistently interesting. It is the best introduction I know to placing Shakespeare in the theatrical currents of his time and tracing his interactions, such as they can be known, with his less famous, though greatly gifted, contemporaries Marlowe, Jonson, Dekker, Middleton, Fletcher, Webster and the rest.
In an age such as ours where otherwise serious people can become preoccupied with crank, dilettantish ideas like the Oxford wrote Shakespeare nonsense so much in circulation, how likely is it those same serious people have taken the time to read Shakespeare's less well known fellows? They have, perhaps, read Dr. Faustus in an English lit survey class, and know about Marlowe because, after all, HE might, just maybe, be the one who really wrote at least some of Shakespeare's plays, but certainly they have not read either part of Tamburlaine, or A Trick To Catch The Old One, or The Shoemakers Holiday. Need enough, then, that a thoroughgoing, popular introduction to the lives and masterpieces of some of Shakespeare's contemporaries deserves a home on our bulging Shakespeare bookshelves.
The first sentence of the Preface says "This book attempts to place Shakespeare in relation to the actors and other writers, mainly playwrights, of his time in an accessible and where possible entertaining manner" (ix). And so it does, with, speaking for myself, at least, emphasis on "entertaining." I found the book enormously likable. If you are familiar with the period and the authors being treated, you will find nothing new, but a non-specialists book surveying a rather broad field does not attempt to present novel interpretations, but rather can be relied on to deliver the state-of-the-art scholarly understanding of these authors and their works in a pleasant style. Wells's scholarly status guarantees the most dependable understanding of the times and writers, and his gifts as a writer makes reading a joy.
Shakespeare and Co: Marlow, Thomas Dekker, Ben Jonson, Thomas Middleton, John Fletcher and the other Players in His Story
A fun, fast read...If your looking for who wrote Shakespeare other the Shakespeare you will be disappointed...Prof. Wells though speculates on who may have collaborated with Shakespeare on some plays a little more freely the other academics might but don't look for a smoking gun...the best passage in the book in my opinion is Prof. Wells description of the death of Marlow, it is vivid and would make a great story for any High School Lit. teacher to use to spice up her/his Jr. Eng. Lit. class.
If you are into Shakespeare I think you will find "Shakespeare & Co.:..." a great read.
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