"English Stage Comedy 1490-1900" is a unique and beautifully written study of the comedy of the English stage from the Tudor period to the late twentieth century. It shows how this remarkably enduring genre has dealt with the tensions of social life, using its conventions as tools for social inquiry[...]

Shakespeare's Tragedies: Violation and Identity traces the linked themes of violation and identity through seven Shakespearean tragedies, beginning with the rape of Lavinia in Titus Andronicus. The implications of this event - its physical and moral shock, the way it puts Lavinia's identity, and the[...]