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Shakespeare, 'A Lover's Complaint', and John Davies of Hereford

Brian Vickers author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Cambridge University Press

Published:11th Jan '07

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Shakespeare, 'A Lover's Complaint', and John Davies of Hereford cover

This text was the first full study of the origins and authorship of A Lover's Complaint.

Shakespeare's Sonnets (1609) included a poem called A Lover's Complaint, of questionable authenticity. This text, the first full study of this poem, shows that it has many un-Shakespearian features. Using detailed analysis Vickers attributes the poem to John Davies of Hereford (1565–1618). An important work which will re-define the Shakespeare canon.When Shakespeare's Sonnets were published in 1609 a poem called A Lover's Complaint was included by the publisher, Thomas Thorpe, who was notorious for several irregular publications. Many scholars have doubted its authenticity, but recent editions of the Sonnets have accepted it as Shakespeare's work. Now Vickers, in this text, the first full study of the poem, shows it to be un-Shakespearian both in its language and in its attitude to women. It is awkwardly constructed and uses archaic Spenserian diction, including many unusual words that never occur in Shakespeare. It frequently repeats stock phrases and rhymes, distorts normal word order far more often and more clumsily than Shakespeare did, while its attitude to female frailty is moralizing and misogynistic. By close analysis Vickers attributes the poem to John Davies of Hereford (1565–1618), a famous calligrapher and writing-master who was also a prolific poet. Vickers' book will re-define the Shakespeare canon.

Review of the hardback: '… a brilliant piece of detective work by the scholar Brian Vickers has strongly suggested that ['A Lover's Complaint'] was actually by a Herefordshire writing-master and Shakespeare groupie called Sir John Davies.' Telegraph.co.uk
Review of the hardback: 'It's hardly possible not to be convinced (swept away even) by the thoroughness and passion of Vickers's argument. I'm happy to acknowledge myself a convert. … An invaluable section of the book demonstrates the degree to which Shakespeare's alleged linguistic innovations can be found all over the place in that 'remarkably fruitful period of linguistic expansion' in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.' Shakespeare Survey

ISBN: 9780521859127

Dimensions: 235mm x 158mm x 28mm

Weight: 630g

342 pages