Shakespeare's Letters

Shakespeare's Letters shows how and why Shakespeare put letters on stage in virtually all of his plays. By understanding the very different uses to which letters were put in Shakespeare's time, we can throw new light on some of his most familiar dramas. Early modern letters were not private missives sent through an anonymous postal system, but a vital-sometimes the only-means of maintaining contact and sending news between distant locations. Penning a letter was a serious business in a period when writers made their own pen and ink; letter-writing protocols were strict; letters were dispatched by personal messengers or carriers, often received and read in public - and Shakespeare exploited all these features to dramatic effect. The book features new readings of Hamlet, King Lear, Antony and Cleopatra, The Merchant of Venice and Falstaff in Henry IV Part One.