A Shakespeare Thesaurus is the first attempt to organize and classify the entire Shakespearean vocabulary. It presents the "world" that is to be derived from Shakespeare's idiolect and provides a vivid impression of the Elizabethan world. The perspective is, thus, not solely personal, literary, or linguistic but also historical, sociological, and cultural. This classified inventory consists of 37 main groups and 897 subgroups, ranging from the Physical World to Sense Perception, Law to Religion, Time to Space. This unique reference--a treasury of information about Shakespeare and his world--is both indispensable for scholars and students and fascinating for the browser, the curious, and the imaginative. Among Marvin Spevak's previous works is The Harvard Concordance to Shakespeare.
Dies ist die erste Untersuchung des Gesamtwerks von Sir Sidney Lee (1859-1926), einem der bedeutendsten Humanisten seiner Zeit. Als Enkel deutsch-jüdischer Immigranten und Sohn eines Kaufmanns verlief sein Werdegang über The City of London School und das Balliol College der Universität Oxford, bis er, in noch außergewöhnlich jungen Jahren, Mitarbeiter beim monumentalen Dictionary of National Biography wurde, wo er 1891 zum alleinigen Herausgeber avancierte. Durch die Veröffentlichung einer außerordentlich erfolgreichen Shakespeare-Biographie und einer unübertroffenen Faksimile-Ausgabe des First Folio, die beide Standardwerke wurden, etablierte er sich als führender Shakespeare-Forscher seiner Zeit. Mit der Vollendung der 63 Bände des Dictionary hatte er sein Können als Biograph bewiesen, das dann in den maßgeblichen Biographien Königin Victorias und König Edwards VII. gipfelte. Als ein Pionier der Komparatistik konzentrierte er sich auf die literarischen Beziehungen zwischen England und dem Kontinent in der Renaissance, wobei er beider klassisches Erbe betonte. Und als Professor für englische Literatur am East London College der Universität London ab 1913 setzte er sich aktiv für Reformen im Lehrplan und die Ziele der Anglistik ein, während er gleichzeitig das Amt des Präsidenten der English Association bekleidete und The Year’s Work in English Studies gründete und herausgab. Die Karriere von Sidney Lee – vielseitig und spannungsgeladen, mit Ehrentiteln und der Ritterwürde ausgezeichnet – ist eine Geschichte unermüdlicher Anstrengungen und großer Leistungen im Dienst der Literatur, der Geschichte, der Bildung und der Kultur. *** This is the first study of the work of Sir Sidney Lee (1859-1926), one of the most important humanists of his day. Grandson of a German-Jewish immigrant and son of a millinery warehouseman, he proceeded from the City of London School to Balliol College, University of Oxford, and thereafter, with precocious speed, to the staff of the monumental Dictionary of National Biography, becoming sole editor in 1891. By the turn of the century he established himself as a leading Shakespearean with the publication of an acclaimed life of Shakespeare and an unparalleled facsimile of the First Folio of his plays, both standard works. With the completion of the sixty-three volumes of the Dictionary he developed his skill as biographer, producing definitive lives of Queen Victoria and King Edward VII. A pioneering comparatist, he focussed on the literary relations of England and the Continent in the Renaissance, stressing their classical heritage. And as Professor of English from 1913 he was an active reformer of the curriculum and outlook of English studies, serving too as President of the English Association and founding editor of The Year’s Work in English Studies. Rich in variety and implication, ambitious and stressful though studded with honorary degrees and a knighthood, the career of Sidney Lee is the story of tireless literary, historical, and cultural aims and achievements.
The history of Shakespeare scholarship in the nineteenth century has not been written. But there can be no doubt that its sustaining force was an irrepressible and burgeoning national consciousness. England boomed. It celebrated its heroes and venerated the greatest of them all, Shakespeare. Shakespeare scholarship flourished across the nation. Editions of the complete works abounded. There were ambitious Shakespeare societies and scores of local clubs. Stratford-upon-Avon was resurrected, refitted, and consecrated. Much of the activity is evident from the perspective of James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps, whose fifty-year literary career may be said to constitute the bookends of Shakespearean scholarship in the nineteenth century. He was a center around which many satellites revolved and intercommunicated, revealing personalities of individuals, the nature of the relationships, their critical dispositions and politics, and in effect constituting in nuce the dimension and surge of Shakespeare scholarship of the age. It is the purpose of this archival research to make available detail and color for the comprehensive narrative that remains to be written.
Francis Turner Palgrave (1824-1897) is best known for his Golden Treasury of the Best Songs and Lyrical Poems in the English Language. It was an immediate bestseller at its appearance in 1861, has been expanded and reprinted to the present day, and is considered to be the most important anthology in the literary history of England. It has been so dominant that it has overshadowed Palgrave’s other impressive work. For one, he was a leading art critic, praised or feared by some, but taken seriously by all. For another, he was a tireless historian and critic of English, Classical, and European literature, his efforts crowned by his tenure as Professor of Poetry in Oxford from 1885 to 1895. He was also a respected poet, who produced six volumes of poetry and numerous poems in journals and for special occasions. And in addition he published three novels, stories and plays for children, numerous editions of poets, collections of hymns, and anthologies. The aim of the present undertaking, the fi rst descriptive survey of all his works, is to make these works known so that he may be accorded a proper place in the cultural history of the Victorian Age.
This is the first in-depth study of the works of Isaac D’Israeli, the father of Benjamin Disraeli, the Prime Minister. Born in London in 1766 of an immigrant Jewish merchant, D'Israeli became a well-known man of letters. By the time of his death in 1848 his ever-renewing Curiosities of Litera-ture had gone through fourteen editions, establishing him as one of the most popular essayists of his day. In addition he produced poems, novels, miscellanies, notable historical and sociological studies, and an ambitious history of English literature. D’Israeli was a lively and engaged author. He was enthralled by the promise of the French Revolution and then, disenchanted, warned of its abuses and threat in his nov-els Vaurieni and Despotism. He took aim at the follies of pseudo-scientists, quack pro-jectors, and crackpot philosophers of the time in his satirical novel Flim-Flams. He influenced the socio-political ideology of his son with his three-volume Commentaries of the Life and Reign of King Charles I. and his challenging The Genius of Judaism. Benjamin Disraeli recognized the achievement of his father: “For sixty years, he largely contributed to form the taste, charm the leisure, and direct the studious disposi-tions of the great body of the public. His works have extensively and curiously illus-trated the literary and political history of our country.”
