Table of Contents

Introduction
1: Renaissance Articulations
2: Did Shakespeare Study Creative Writing?
3: Both Sides Now
4: Vernacular Values
5: Commonplace Shakespeare
6: The Origins of English
Afterword

About the Author

Neil Rhodes is Professor of English Literature and Cultural History at the University of St Andrews.

Reviews

`Review from previous edition learned, historically capacious, thoughtful, concerned with challenging topics in several related subdisciplines ... The range of his book is admirable and its lack of dogmatism welcome'
Russ McDonald, Shakespeare Quarterly
`lively and accessible . . . his arguments offer a refreshing, though not always unproblematic, revitalization of elements of English studies that have lain moribund for decades, if not centuries'
Leah S. Marcus, Modern Language Quarterly
`a lively, readable and thought-provoking book'
Richard Dutton, Studies in English Literature 1500-1900
`full of stimulating, and sometimes provocative, ideas and viewpoints and displays great skill in weaving together different materials and lines of argument. . . . Lively, provocative, and rich in ideas, Shakespeare and the Origins of English is a stimulating contribution to the debate about contemporary, as well as early modern, literary education.'
Fred Schurink, Notes and Queries
`Rhodes shows convincingly that Shakespeare's literary achievement is most often based on his consistent breaking of accepted Renaissance rules for writing. Rhodes' comments on the neoclassic writers' response to Shakespeare are also very illuminating. . . . offers much to engage the attention.'
Choice