Book Cover; Half-title; Title; Copyright; Dedication; Contents; Acknowledgements; 1 By; Into the Mousetrap; Marking the play; A pragmatism; Enter the Prince; 2 Or; Nedar; Older women; One more time; Same difference; The naming of parts; Wall; Author! Author!; Mr Asquith's smile; Round or round the mulberry bush; 3 Shakespeare and the General Strike; Criticism on strike; Over the top; March on Rome; Birthday Bard; Enter 'Shakespeare'; You ain't heard nothing yet; 4 Take me to your Leda; Crash; Goodnight, Vienna; Legal fiction; Putting on some English; Swan-song; 5 Slow, slow, quick quick, slow and Whispering grassSweethearts on Parade; You came a long way from St Louis; Brush up your Shakespeare; The Eagle Rock; Here Comes the Bride; The Original Dixieland One-Step; 6 Lear's Maps; Meantime; Old times; New times; Wartime; Big time; Whirligig; 7 Bardbiz; Postscript; Notes; 1 By; 2 Or; 3 Shakespeare and the General Strike; 4 Take me to your Leda; 5 Slow, slow, quick quick, slow; 6 Lear's maps; 7 Bardbiz; Index
Summary
We traditionally assume that the `meaning' of each of Shakespeares plays is bequeathed to it by the Bard. It is as if, to the information which used to be given in theatrical programmes, `Cigarettes by Abdullah, Costumes by Motley, Music by Mendelssohn', we should add `Meaning by Shakespeare'. These essays rest on a different, almost opposite, principle. Developing the arguments of the same author's That Shakespearean Rag (1986), they put the case that Shakespeare's plays have no essential meanings, but function as resources which we use to generate meaning. A Midsummer Night'
