Kent Cartwright's new book goes a long way in elucidating the forms of Shakespeare's comic instinct for "enchantment" in the classic comedies, yet offers a number of hints as to why enchantment is such serious business. The book is excellent: fully informed by wide reading in theories of comedy generally and studies of Shakespearean comedy in particular; illuminating in its concentration upon the characteristics of the comedies; and helpful in its illustrative
readings of actual plays.
Kent Cartwright is Professor Emeritus and former Chair of the Department of English of the University of Maryland. His teaching and scholarship have focused on sixteenth-century British literature, especially drama, and on late medieval British literature. He has also written on the status of the undergraduate English major. He has edited The Comedy of Errors, for The Arden Shakespeare, Third Series (Bloomsbury, 2017). His other books include Theatre
and Humanism: English Drama in the Sixteenth Century (Cambridge University Press, 1999) and Shakespearean Tragedy and Its Double: The Rhythms of Audience Response (Penn State University Press, 1991). He is editor of A Companion to Tudor Literature (Blackwell, 2010) and the author of numerous articles on
Shakespeare and Renaissance drama. He has served as president of the Association of Departments of English (USA) and as a trustee of the Shakespeare Association of America.