The Sonnets [Paperback]

The Signet Classic Shakespeare Series
The work of the world’s greatest dramatist edited by outstanding scholars
 
The Sonnets
UNIQUE FEATURES OF THE SIGNET CLASSICS SHAKESPEARE

• An extensive overview of Shakespeare’s life, world, and sonnets by the general editor of the Signet Classics Shakespeare series, Sylvan Barnet, Tufts University
 
• Special introduction toThe Sonnets, by W. H. Auden
 
• Literary criticism by William Empson, Hallett Smith, Winifred M. T. Nowottny, and Helen Vendler
 
• Detailed footnotes at the bottom of each page of the sonnets
 
• List of recommended reading
 
• All text printed in the clearest, most readable type

 

The Sonnets - William ShakespeareEdited by William Burto with an Introduction by W. H. Auden

Shakespeare: An Overview
Biographical Sketch
A Note on the Anti-Stratfordians, Especially Baconians and Oxfordians
The Shakespeare Canon
Shakespeare's English
The Sonnets
Introduction
The Sonnets
Textual Note
Commentaries
William Empson: They That Have Power
Hallett Smith:FromElizabethan Poetry
Winifred M. T. Nowottny: Formal Elements in Shakespeare's Sonnets: Sonnets 1-6
Helen Vendler: Sonnet 116

Suggested References
Index of First Lines

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE was born at Stratford upon Avon in April, 1564. He was the third child, and eldest son, of John Shakespeare and Mary Arden. His father was one of the most prosperous men of Stratford, who held in turn the chief offices in the town. In December, 1582, Shakespeare married Ann Hathaway, a farmer's daughter; their first child Susanna was baptized on May 6, 1583, and twins, Hamnet and Judith, on February 22, 1585. Little is known of Shakespeare’s early life; but it is unlikely that a writer who dramatizlóå