Overview

This lively, lucid book undertakes a detailed and provocative study of Shakespeare's fascination with clowns, fools, and fooling. Through close reading of plays over the whole course of Shakespeare's theatrical career,  Bell highlights the fun, wit, insights, and mysteries of some of Shakespeare's most vibrant and often vexing figures.

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9780230115118

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<p> I have been waiting for the sequel to Jocoserious Joyce for two decades, and here it is, not a moment too soon. The fool's hour has come round at last, and there is no more capacious, serious guide to foolery and its wisdom than Bell, a master of clowning, an exemplary reader, an unfolder of layer after layer of comedy, and a sensitive listener to its most profound resonances. --Willard Spiegelman, Hughes Professor of English, Southern Methodist University and Editor-in-Chief, Southwest Review <p><p> Shakespeare's Great Stage of Fools will instruct and delight not only scholars and critics, but all lovers of Shakespeare. Bell has that 'most rare vision' he sees the historical and thematic grand picture as well as the beautiful and mysterious details. Like a modern Erasmus, Bell shows how we are all ensnared and yet sometimes saved by folly. His deep insight and superb prose hold a clarifying mirror to Shakespeare's plays, and to ourselves. --Peter Campion, Editor, Literary Imagination and author of The Lions <p>

<p> I have been waiting for the sequel to Jocoserious Joyce for two decades, and here it is, not a moment too soon. The fool's hour has come round at last, and there is no more capacious, serious guide to foolery and its wisdom than Bell, a master of clowning, an exemplary reader, an unfolder of layer after layer of comedy, and a sensitive listener to its most profound resonances. --Willard Spiegelman, Hughes Professor of English, Southern Methodist University and Editor-in-Chief, Southwest Review <p> Shakespeare's Great Stage of Fools will instruct and delight not only scholars and critics, but all lovers of Shakespeare. Bell has that 'most rare vision' he sees the historical and thematic grand picture as well as the beautiful and mysterious details. Like a modern Erasmus, Bell shows how we are all ensnared and yet sometimes saved by folly. His deep insight and superb prose hold a clarifying mirror to Shakespeare's plays, and to ourselves. --Peter Campion, Editor, Literary Im

Author Information

ROBERT HUNTLEY BELL is Frederick Latimer Wells Professor of English at Williams College, USA.

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