The Sources of Shakespeare's Plays

First Published In 1977. This Book Ascertains What Sources Shakespeare Used For The Plots Of His Plays And Discusses The Use He Made Of Them; And Secondly Illustrates How His General Reading Is Woven Into The Texture Of His Work. Few Elizabethan Dramatists Took Such Pains As Shakespeare In The Collection Of Source-material. Frequently The Sources Were Apparently Incompatible, But Shakespeare's Ability To Combine A Chronicle Play, One Or Two Prose Chronicles, Two Poems And A Pastoral Romance Without Any Sense Of Incongruity, Was Masterly. The Plays Are Examined In Approximately Chronological Order And Shakespeare's Developing Skill Becomes Evident.