Shakespeare Unauthorized at Boston Public Library

Ever wanted to find out more about the man behind the world-famous plays like The Merchant of Venice, Romeo and Juliet, The Tempest, Twelfth Night, Othello, and countless others? The Boston Public Library, through March 31, is showcasing 400 years of literary speculation, adaptations, works, celebrations, and history of William Shakespeare in an exhibit called Shakespeare Unauthorized.

Boston Public Library holds one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of Shakespeare's work, so visitors can learn more about his life, as well as his books, sonnets, and poems, all in his original language and spelling.

Before you plan your trip to Boston, pick up one of our wonderful Cosimo Classics by or about The Bard.

Poems and Sonnets of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare

He is the greatest writer in the English language — perhaps in any language — and here, in one compact volume is all the verse even many of those familiar with his plays have never read. In 1593 and 1594, while English theaters were closed in response to the plague, William Shakespeare turned from drama to narrative poems, and published the dyad "Venus and Adonis" and "The Rape of Lucrece," erotic meditations on lust and sexual power. Standing powerfully in opposition to each other, they also differ wildly from Shakespeare's romantic sonnets — all 154 of them are here. 

Life In Shakespeare's England: A Book of Elizabethan Prose by J.D. Wilson

British Shakespearean scholar J.D. Wilson is best remembered for his explications of the Bard, particularly his acclaimed 1935 work What Happens in Hamlet. Here, however, he takes a rather more oblique approach to enlightening us to the world of Shakespeare, gathering together in this 1913 volume writings by contemporaries of the playwright's — some famous, some not — that illuminate the artistic society and ordinary life of Elizabethan England.

Elizabethan Drama I: The Five Foot Shelf of Classics, Vol. XLVI by Christopher Marlowe 

Originally published between 1909-1917 under the name "Harvard Classics," this stupendous 51-volume set-a collection of the greatest writings from literature, philosophy, history, and mythology. Volume XLVI features four of the masterpiece tragedies by the greatest playwright in the English language — William Shakespeare's Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth, and The Tempest. Also included in this volume is Edward the Second, a 1592 drama of court intrigue, by Christopher Marlowe who greatly influenced Shakespeare's writing and who — some speculate — may actually have penned the plays credited to Shakespeare after faking his own death and taking on an assumed name.

Shakespeare Lexicon, Vol. 1 by Alexander Schmidt

Still often used today, German schoolmaster and philologist Alexander Schmidt's Shakespeare Lexicon is the source for elucidating the sometimes cryptic language of Shakespeare and tracking down quotations. Volume 1 covers A through L, from "a: the first letter of the alphabet" to "Lysimachus," a proper name. Every word from every play and poem is cataloged, referenced, and defined in this exhaustive two-volume work, the result of arduous research and stalwart dedication. Serious scholars and zealous fans will find the Lexicon the ultimate guide to reading and decoding the Bard.

Shakespeare Lexicon, Vol. 2 by Alexander Schmidt

Still often used today, German schoolmaster and philologist Alexander Schmidt's Shakespeare Lexicon is the source for elucidating the sometimes cryptic language of Shakespeare and tracking down quotations. Volume 2 covers M through Z, from "Mab: the queen of the fairies" to "Zounds: an oath contracted from God's wounds," and features numerous appendices and supplements on grammar and usage. Every word from every play and poem is cataloged, referenced, and defined in this exhaustive two-volume work, the result of arduous research and stalwart dedication. Serious scholars and zealous fans will find the Lexicon the ultimate guide to reading and decoding the Bard.