ほぼ四半世紀に及んだそのキャリアの中で、どのジャンルより多く喜劇を手掛けたシェイクスピア。ロマンス劇にも分類される『テンペスト』『冬物語』を含む18の作品の作風・変遷から5つの特徴的な要素を明らかにし、喜劇論の文脈での分析や同時代作品との比較を行います。また上演史や初演俳優、翻案についても幅広く取り上げます。(cf. William Shakespeare, #060; Shakespeare’s Tragedies, #522; Comedy, #341)
　　　

• Identifies the five distinctive qualities of Shakespearean comedy, and makes connections across all of Shakespeare's comic plays, including so-called 'romances' such as The Tempest or The Winter's Tale
• Analyses Shakespeare's comedic plays in the context of their time
• Explains theories of comedy from Aristotle to Freud and Bergson

  
From The Two Gentlemen of Verona in the early 1590s to The Two Noble Kinsmen at the end of his career around 1614, Shakespeare wrote at least eighteen plays that can be called 'comedies': a far higher number than that for any other genre in which he wrote. So what is a Shakespearean comedy? We associate these plays with such themes as mistaken identities, happy marriages, and exuberant cross dressing, but how representative are these of the oeuvre as a whole? 
  
In this Very Short Introduction, Bart van Es explores the full range of the playwright's comic writing, from the neat classical plotting of early works like The Comedy of Errors to the corrupt world of the so-called problem plays, written in the middle years of Shakespeare's life. Examining Shakespeare's influences and sources, van Es compares his plays to those of his rivals, and looks at the history of the plays in performance, from the biographies of Shakespeare's original actors to the plays' endless reinvention in modern stage productions and in films. Identifying the key qualities that make Shakespearean comedy distinctive, van Es traces the changing nature of Shakespeare's comic writing over the course of a career that spanned nearly a quarter century of theatrical change.