This book examines some of the readings that were available to Shakespeare. It exposes the reader to works not normally associated with this playwright and suggests ways on how philosophical ideas of the day may have influenced his writings. The works profiled include such renaissance philosophers as Ficino, Pico della Mirandola and Giordano Bruno. Shakespeare's incorporation of their ideas into his plays transforms the plays into much more subversive material and leads to profoundly different ways of interpreting his work. Anyone interested in finding new approaches to and new...

"Presence in Absence; Beneath Shakespeare's Poetic Surface" reveals 'things nobody knows' about Shakespeare's plays. S.W.Stout does this by quoting from the works of some of the most controversial philosophers of the Renaissance period and reveals how their understanding of the world found a place in Shakespeare's verse. This book consists of seven essays with each essay revealing something you never knew before about one of Shakespeare's plays. Because of the author's use of primary documents it is a useful resource to college and university students. But his informal style also makes the...