"Leah Marcus's The Politics of Mirth: Jonson, Herrick, Milton, Marvell, and the Defense of Old Holiday Pastimes is a fascinating study of why James and Charles promoted some types of rural sport and festival and of how certain literary texts participated in promoting or critiquing royal policy. . . . Marcus provocatively links texts not often studied in conjunction with one another, and she provides strong and detailed readings of those texts."—Jean E. Howard

In Shakespeare's Critics, A. M. Eastman and G. B. Harrison bring together Shakespearean criticism of 120 poets and writers from across more than three and a half centuries. They discuss every aspect of Shakespeare's art—his style, wit, characterization, adaptability to the modern stage, even the decency of his language. The variety, diversion, and contradiction of their points of view, as well as their different approaches, heighten our enjoyment and appreciation of his art. This Baedeker of Shakespearean criticism stresses both general and specific problems of interpretation and demonstrates that for Shakespeare there is no single, agreed-upon truth. The plays, from As You Like It to The Winter's Tale, are discussed and analyzed, giving us a total picture of Shakespeare's art that is concise and comprehensive. The result is a unique compendium of the shifting tides of taste during the past 370 years.