Mr Who He?

Stephen Orgel

  • The Complete Sonnets and Poems by William Shakespeare, edited by Colin Burrow
    Oxford, 750 pp, £65.00, February 2002, ISBN 0 01 981843 2

In his own time, Shakespeare was much better known to the reading public as a poet than as a playwright. Venus and Adonis went through ten editions before his death in 1616, and another six before 1640. His other long narrative poem, The Rape of Lucrece, was less popular, but it, too, circulated far more widely than any of the plays, appearing in six editions during his life, and in two more by 1640. The most popular of the plays were Richard III and Richard II, each of which went through five editions before 1616. Romeo and Juliet went through four; Hamlet appeared in three.

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