本书是《剑桥文学指南》丛书中的一种。是一本由英国**莎学家，国际莎士比亚学会主席Stanley Wells主编，由伯明翰大学莎士比亚学院、里兹大学、哈佛大学、耶鲁大学、波恩大学、巴黎大学等学校19名教授撰稿的论文集。该论文集是继剑桥大学出版社1971年版
《新莎士比亚研究指南》以来，西方莎士比亚研究领域的又一成果。本书共收录论文17篇，系统地阐述和研究了莎士比亚生平、莎士比亚及其时代的思想、莎士比亚时代的剧场与演员、莎士比亚喜剧与悲剧的传统、莎土比亚再版本，对于了解当代西方莎学的进展有着不可替代的价值。本书的出版，是西方莎士比亚研究的一个新的里程碑。

1 The life of Shakespeare ‘All that is known with any degree of certainty concerning Shakespeare, is-that he was born at Stratford upon Avon,-married and had children there,-went to London, where he commenced actor, and wrote poems and plays, returned to Shakespearian scholar of the eighteenth century, George Steevens. His remark has been often quoted, and others have made essentially the same comment in less memorable words. But Steevens exaggerated, and since his time much has been learned about the poet, his ancestors and family, and his Stratford and London associations. There facts, it is true, are of a public character, and are recorded in official, mainly legal, documents-conveyances of property,tax assessments and the like; as such, they afford no insight of literary biography. Yet we know more about Shakespeare than about most of his fellow playwrights. John Webster,for example, the author of two great tragedies, remains little more than an elusive ghost. And, however impersonal, what we know about Shakespeare is not without interest or meaning. The parish register of Holy Trinity Church records his baptism on 26 April 1564. Tradition assigns his birthdate to the twenty-third. An interval of three days between birth and christening is not unlikely, and supporting evidence is provided by the inscription on the dramatists tomb, which states that he died on 23 April 1616,in his fifth-third year.

List of illustrations
List of contributors
Preface
1 The life of Shakespeare
2 Shakespeare and the thought of his age
3 Shakespeare the non-dramatic poet
4 Shakespeare and the arts of language
5 Playhouses and players in the time of Shakespeare
6 Shakespeare and the theatrical conventions of his time
7 Shakespeare and the traditions of comedy
8 Shakespeare and the traditions of tragedy
9 Shakespeares use of history
10 The transmission of Shakespeares text
11 Shakespeare on the stage from I660 to I900
12 Critical approaches to Shakespeare from I660 to I904
13 Twentieth-century Shakespeare criticism:
a The comedies
b The tragedies
c The histories
14 Shakespeare on the twentieth-century stage
15 Shakespeare on film and television
16 Shakespeare and new critical approaches
17 Shakespeare reference books
Index