preface

It has been observed that critics who write about Shakespeare reveal more about themselves than about Shakespeare, but perhaps that is the great value of drama of the Shakespearian kind, namely, that whatever he may see taking place on stage, its final effect upon each spectator is a self-revelation.-w. h.au den, "th e pr ince's dog" (1948) This book is the fruit of an epiphany I had in the middle of my career as a lit er a ture scholar.During that period, Shakespeare's works were the sole focus of my teaching and research, and I frequently explored them with members of the public in community education programs I organized with a professional theater com pany.The essence of the epiphany is that while there will always be many things to learn about Shakespeare's plays and the world in which he lived, scholars and every body else can also learn from his vision of human experience, about themselves and our world.As I listened to readers from diff erent walks of life interpret their diverse experiences through Shakespeare's works, I gradually overcame the aversion to reading lit er a ture that way, a hallmark of literary criticism's professionalization as an academic discipline.I began to notice that Shakespeare regularly focuses his attention on scholars-how they think and speak; how they understand themselves; what x P r e fac e