Shakespeare's Sonnets (Oxford Shakespeare Topics)
`This is an admirably clear book about obscurity. The authors ask many impossible questions, then satisfy our curiosity while leaving them unanswered. The Sonnets are already opaque as we approach them. The famous introductory dedication to Mr W.H. has inspired volumes of misplaced ingenuity, enough to shadow the poems themselves. Trying to find Mr W.S. inside those 2000 enigmatic lines needs sense, sensibility, time, curiosity, patience and scholarship. Edmondson and Wells have those qualities. Though the centre of the labyrinth is never reached, they are lively and trustworthy guides.' Tom Deveson, Around the Globe`elegant...This book is excellent on links between theatre and sonnets...The book is also a consideration, even a celebration, of what, precisely, makes Shakespeare's verse so compelling.' TLS