Shakespeare's Bawdy

by Eric Partridge

Overview

This classic of Shakespeare scholarship begins with a masterly introductory essay analysing and exemplifying the various categories of sexual and non-sexual bawdy expressions and allusions in Shakespeare's plays and sonnets. The main body of the work consists of an alphabetical glossary of all words and phrases used in a sexual or scatological sense, with full explanations and cross-references.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781134522095
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	07/08/2005
Series:	Routledge Classics
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	240
File size:	539 KB

About the Author

Eric Partridge (1884-1979) was the author of some three dozen books, mainly on the aspects of the English language. Stanley Wells is an eminent Shakespearean scholar and the general editor of Oxford Shakespeare.

Table of Contents

Foreword, Preface, Essay, 1 Introductory, 2 Non-Sexual Bawdy, 3 Homosexual, 4 Sexual, 5 General, 6 Valedictory, Index to Essay, Glossary

Editorial Reviews

It reads as freshly today as it did fifty years ago, when it surprised everyone with its originality and daring, an intriguing blend of personal insight and solid detective-work. If ever a word-book deserved to be called a classic, it is this.

David Crystal

Eric was a human lexicographer, like Samuel Johnson. He was a philologist rather than a linguist. He knew what Chomsky was doing and what had happened to phonology in Prague, but he eschewed the strict scientific approach. Linguistics is scared of semantics and prefers to concentrate on structures, leaving the study of the meaning of words to anthropologists - or, perhaps with misgivings, to Johnsonian word-lovers like Eric Partridge.

Anthony Burgess

Shakespeare's Bawdy's status as a pioneering study remains unchallenged.

Ralph Elliott

'It reads as freshly today as it did fifty years ago, when it surprised everyone with its originality and daring, an intriguing blend of personal insight and solid detective-work. If ever a word-book deserved to be called a classic, it is this.' - David Crystal

‘Partridge remains the standard introduction on the subject. For those libraries and individuals who do not already have it on their shelves it is good to have this reasonably priced reprint available.' - Reference Reviews

'Most people reading the book will be delighted with Partridge's learned swashbuckling style, grateful for his scholarship, and amused by the plethora of examples he explores.' - Roy Johnson, Mantex

From the Publisher