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. <P>Here in a single volume are major readings of Hamlet and Macbeth a witty and sometimes impassioned defence of Falstaff and a new 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 Night's Dream and the last plays. <P>The essays demonstrate the subtlety and agility of Empson's mind as well as his remarkable breadth of knowledge while the almost racy wit of his informal prose-style argues for a literary criticism which should never become solemn if it is to be truly serious.