What Do I Read Next?
- A. L. Rowse, a renowned modern critic of English literature, meticulously analyzed each of the 154 sonnets for Shakespeare’s Sonnets: The Problems Solved, published in 1973 by Harper & Rowe. Each sonnet is accompanied by brief notes, providing readers with enough insight to understand the narrative behind the poems without getting overwhelmed by theory.
- A. L. Rowse is also the author of one of the most comprehensive and accessible biographies of the poet, Shakespeare the Man. The second edition of this biography was released in 1988 by St. Martin’s Press.
- One of the most captivating projects related to Shakespeare’s sonnets in recent years is Love’s Fire: Seven New Plays Inspired by Seven Shakespearean Sonnets, published in 1998 by William Morrow & Co. This collection features works by playwrights such as Eric Bogosian, Wendy Wasserstein, and Ntozake Shange.
- Ben Jonson, an English playwright and poet, was arguably Shakespeare’s closest peer. The two were friends, and early in his career, Shakespeare acted in one of Jonson’s plays. To explore another significant talent from Shakespeare’s era, readers can delve into The Complete Poems of Ben Jonson, published in 1988 by Penguin Classics.
- There are two primary types of sonnets. The English sonnet, often called the Shakespearean sonnet, is named after its most famous practitioner. Similarly, the Italian sonnet is frequently referred to as the Petrarchan sonnet, named after Petrarch, the fourteenth-century Italian poet who perfected the form. His sonnets can be found in Petrarch: The Canzoniere, or Rerum Vulgarium Fragmenta, translated by Mark Musa and introduced by Barbara Manfredi, published by Indiana University Press in 1999.
- Oscar Wilde, a brilliant playwright (The Importance of Being Earnest) and novelist (The Picture of Dorian Gray), turned his focus in 1899 to uncovering the identity of the person mentioned on the dedication page of the first publication of Shakespeare’s sonnets. This pursuit resulted in the essay “The Portrait of Mr. W. H.” Reading like a mystery novel, this essay is a remarkable piece of work, rich with scholarly details about Shakespeare’s life. Although modern scholars suggest that the dedication to “Mr. W. H.” likely refers to the book’s publisher, Thomas Thorpe, as indicated by the signature “T. T.,” Wilde’s nearly 100-page essay remains an enjoyable and intriguing read.
- Several critics have speculated that the rival occasionally alluded to in Shakespeare’s sonnets was Christopher Marlowe, the English poet and playwright who died in 1593 while the sonnets were being composed. Marlowe’s most frequently read work today is his play Dr. Faustus, published posthumously. His lengthy poem “Hero and Leander” is believed to be a response to Shakespeare’s “Venus and Adonis.”
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