Shakespeare's Friends

Subjects:

• Literature » English Literature
• Literature » Literature (General)
• Literature » Drama

Reviews:

• In this handy volume, Pogue has compiled brief biographies of about 50 of Shakespeare's friends and acquaintances. Introductory material provides perspective and indicates Shakespeare's relationship with each of the people profiled. The text is enriched with appendixes providing examples of friendship in Shakespeare's plays, contemporary comments about Shakespeare, a list of important Elizabethan and Jacobean dramatists and actors, and the roles Shakespeare's friends may have played. While similar biographic information can be found in works such as the Oxford Dictionary of Shakespeare or the Oxford Companion to Shakespeare, none of the standard works provides as convenient an access to information about the lives of so many of Shakespeare's friends. Pogue has diligently collected what little is known about a variety of people, from childhood friends (such as Richard Quiney) to collaborators (such as Thomas Dekker) and even the wives of Shakespeare's friends. Recommended for all public and academic libraries.
  —Library Journal April 15, 2006
• Well written and entertaining, Pogue's handbook to Shakespeare's friends draws from, and is informed by, some of the best 20th-century biographical studies, e.g., work by E. K. Chambers, Samuel Schoenbaum, Ian Wilson, and Edgar Fripp. Though it is not meant as cutting-edge scholarship, it is a unique and useful discussion of Shakespeare's documented friendships. Pogue takes the sound approach of dividing the bard's friends into three categories: from Stratford, from London, and from work. The book can be read as a continuous narrative, with a brief account of Shakespeare's life serving to introduce the whole work, or dipped into for information about particular people. One of the rewards of this friendship-by-friendship organization is that it puts well-known facts and individuals into fresh perspectives. Four appendixes, one of which gathers all that Shakespeare's contemporaries wrote of him, further the value of this fine handbook. Recommended. All readers; all levels.
  —Choice September 2006
• [T]his is an ideal introduction to Shakespeare's most likely fellows...
  —British Shakespeare Association Newsletter October 2006
• Pogue has assembled information from scattered sources into a reference that readers can use to find out what sort of company Shakespeare kept, or to research particular people with reference to their connection with him. She discusses them individually in sections on Stratford, London, work, collaborators, shareholders and housekeepers, and wives.
  —Reference & Research Book News May 2006

• Endorsement From Richard Easton
  Tony-award winning actor, New York, London, San Diego: During a long experience of acting Shakespeare--well over 50 productions, from Hamlet in high school in 1950 to Henry IV at Lincoln Center in 2004--with some of the greatest stars and best directors in the theater, my aim has always been to make the audience feel as I do, that the playwright is easily accessible to modern audiences. That he is, in fact, an easily made friend. This delightful and fascinating book accomplishes that noble aim most beautifully.
• Endorsement From Dr. Sidney Berger,
  Producing Director, Houston Shakespeare Festival
  Director, School of Theatre, University of Houston: Kate Pogue's literary detective work adds a vital dimension to our frail knowledge of Shakespeare's life. The book allows us into his time and gives us insights which place him in the context of the vital world of his colleagues and friends.
• Endorsement From Zoe Caldwell
  Actress, Director
  author of I Will Be Cleopatra: An Actress's Journey: Who would have thought there was anything new to know about Shakespeare? Well, there is! Who were his friends? It makes a big difference to know.
• Endorsement From Penny Metropulos
  Stage Director
  Associate Artistic Director, Oregon Shakespeare Festival: Kate Pogue's provocative investigation into the lives of the real characters in Shakespeare's world offers us richly drawn portraits and anecdotes that illuminate the man behind the plays. Through this book we can imagine a link between his writing and the people who surrounded his life. Shakespeare's Friends is a wonderful addition to any Shakespeare library.
• Endorsement From Herman Gollob
  author, Me and Shakespeare: Shakespeare's Friends is a unique, lively and appealing approach to Shakespeare's life and times. Shakespeare enthusiasts surely will find it useful and entertaining.
• Endorsement From Dr. Paul Rathburn
  University of Notre Dame
  Founding Artistic Producer, Summer Shakespeare at Notre Dame: Kate Pogue's new book, Shakespeare's Friends, provides a welcome respite from the swirl of cynicism, sentimentality, myth, and legend surrounding Shakespeare's private life. Pogue is judicious, restrained, and scholarly. True believers and anti-Stratfordians alike will find this an informative and jolly good read.

Table of Contents:

• INTRODUCTION
• William Shakespeare
• FRIENDS IN STRATFORD
• Richard Quiney
• Hamnet Sadler
• Richard Tyler
• Richard Field
• The Combe Family
• The Nash Family
• William Reynolds
• Thomas Greene
• John Hall
• Thomas Russell
• Alexander Aspinall
• Julius Shaw
• John Robinson
• Francis Collins
• William Walker
• FRIENDS IN LONDON
• Shakespeare and Royalty
• Queen Elizabeth I
• King James I
• Earl of Southampton
• Emilia Bassano Lanier
• The Pembrokes
• Lady Warwick
• Maria Montjoy
• William Johnson
• Michael Drayton
• The Davanants
• FRIENDS AT WORK
• Philip Henslowe
• Edward Alleyn
• Christopher Marlowe
• The Collaborators
• Thomas Dekker
• Beaumont and Fletcher
• Ben Jonson
• Shareholders and Housekeepers
• Thomas Pope
• William Sly
• Cutbert Burbage
• Will Kempe
• Augustin Phillips
• Richard Burbage
• John Heminge
• Henry Condell
• The Wives
• Judith Sadler
• Elizabeth Quiney
• Anne Digges Russell
• Dorothy Nash
• Ann Shaw Aspinall
• Jaqueline Vautrollier Field
• Rebecca Heminge
• Elizabeth Condell
• Winifred Burbage
• THE FIRST FOLIO
• CONCLUSION
• AFTERWORD
• APPENDICES
• BIBLIOGRAPHY