Essays On Shakespeare

At The Time Of His Death In 1984, William Empson Was Preparing And Revising A Collection Of His Essays On Shakespeare. The Resulting Volume, Edited By David Pirie, Provides A Book Which The Literary World Has Wanted For Over Half A Century. Here, In A Single Volume, Are Major Readings Of Hamlet And Macbeth, A Witty And Sometimes Impassioned Defence Of Falstaff, And A Piece On The Architecture Of The Globe Theatre And Other Renaissance Playhouses, In Which Empson Explores The Problems That The Design Of Contemporary Stages Posed For A Working Playwright; There Are Also Essays On The Narrative Poems, A Midsummer Nights Dream, And The Last Plays.