Reading Shakespeare's Poems in Early Modern England (Electronic book text)

How did early modern readers respond to, use, and rework Shakespeare's poems? More widely, how do early modern modes of reading literature challenge the tacit assumptions of our own critical practise? Reading Shakespeare's Poems in Early Modern England - the first comprehensive study of early modern texts, readings, and readers of Shakespeare's poems in print and manuscript - makes a compelling contribution both to Shakespeare studies and the history of the book. Examining the formation of gendered readerships and the uses of light literature, reading practices and manuscript culture, textual forms and transmission, literary taste and the canonisation of Shakespeare, this book explores the dazzling energy and creativity of early modern literary culture. Drawing upon new archival research into the fascinating work of Shakespeare's first readers (both men and women), Roberts argues that historicist criticism can no longer ignore histories of reading.