Publisher's Synopsis
In New York in 1946-7 Auden undertook to lecture informally on all Shakespeare's plays (except Titus Andronicus and The Merry Wives of Windsor) as well as the Sonnets. Since he believed that 'criticism is live conversation' he discarded his manuscript after each session and it is only thanks to his friend and secretary, Alan Ansen, and some other members of the audience, that the text of this brilliant critical and intellectual feat has been recovered. Some passages were later re-worked in The Dyer's Hand but essentially this is a fresh, exhilarating and witty new experience for Auden's admirers, and an extraordinary addition to the canon of Shakespeare commentaries.
