“Although I have known this play for many years, J.P.
Wearing’s introduction sheds new light on many interesting
aspects of the piece, which I look forward to teaching afresh with the
benefit of this text. The footnotes and the supplementary material all
help in understanding the play, placing it in the social and legal
context of its day. Not that it is a mere period piece; Pinero's skill
as a playwright is impressive, and one hopes that this edition will
encourage new productions.” Richard Foulkes, Professor,
University of Leicester
“A century and more after the fact, A. W. Pinero’s
most penetrating play, The
Second Mrs Tanqueray, has now been given a full-dress
evaluative and contextual editorial treatment that does complete
justice to its subject. J. P. Wearing, editor of Pinero’s
letters, has brought his finely honed scholarly skills and broad
knowledge of English theatre and culture to the task of presenting the
single most authoritative text of Pinero’s play in existence
and surrounding it with several sets of informative critical, social,
and cultural writing, along with a comprehensive introduction,
chronology, and bibliography. An immense amount of research lies behind
this enterprise, and a great range of potential readers, from
undergraduate and graduate students to historians and critics, will be
the beneficiaries.” Joseph
Donohue, Professor Emeritus, University of Massachusetts
The Shakespeare Diaries:
“J.P. Wearing’s The Shakespeare’s Diaries...is
a genuine work of scholarly imagination...a work of prodigious
research, based on all the facts we know about Shakespeare’s
life. The book is crammed with fascinating incident...there is much
engaging stuff about his relations with the actors in his company, with
the Dark Lady (Aemilia Lanier) who deceived him with Southampton, and
with such fellow playwrights as Ben Jonson and John Marston...The Diary
is crammed full of plague and deaths and burials, as well as gossip
about the great and the near great, including the Essex Rebellion and
the War of the Theatres. Shakespeare comes across as a mild, gentle,
and generous human being.” Robert Brustein.
In The Shakespeare Diaries: A Fictional Autobiography
J. P. Wearing combines factual accuracy with the vividness of fiction
in a delightful and entertaining book. The lush detail and fascinating
context make this "faction," as Wearing describes it, far more
stimulating and memorable than non-fiction, while generous annotations
lend scholarly authority to this work. We get to know Shakespeare as a
person through his family and friends and through his private
aspirations, motives, fears, and ruminations, not to mention his carnal
appetites as a gay blade--sure to surprise, if not scandalize. We meet
the irrascible Ben Jonson, and we feel death breathing down our
collars. Plague, taverns, duels and envy bring Shakespeare's England to
life. His discussions with colleagues lend background and depth to the
famous plays and characters we know so well. Would that I had had
access to Shakespeare's and Nashe's discussions on The Merchant of
Venice when I was a student! Although Professor Wearing incorporates
many of Shakespeare's own words into his diaries, he has many an
interesting muse and beautiful phrase of his own, all carefully
presented in authentic Elizabethan and Jacobean English. I didn't want
the book to end and felt sad when it did. I had grown quite fond of
Will, and suddenly I missed him. Were the last words of the last entry
Shakespeare's or Wearing's? "Little there is in this life that
surpasseth the company of good friends." Juri Sobol.
“The author . . . is a professor emeritus at
the University of Arizona who has spent his life steeped in literature.
His goal, judging by the blurb on the back of the book, is both to
entertain and educate. As a way of introducing students to William
Shakespeare, this book could be a real boon. Despite the author's use
of cod Shakespearean language, not to mention liberal quotes from the
Bard himself, this is a good read that should not put off too many
younger readers, as the works of the playwright and poet himself can
with their arcane and archaic use of the English language. The best
example of this might be in the use of the full text of certain
sonnets, the language of which contrasts greatly with the general text
of the ‘diaries.’ . . . Wearing has also gone to
considerable trouble to cover pretty much everything that Shakespeare
has written and quite possibly a fair amount that was loosely
attributed to him. In this way, readers will get a good overview of the
works and the thought processes that might possibly have gone into
them. They will also discover that Shakespeare spent an inordinate
amount of his time with other playwrights, first Marlowe and then
Jonson and,additionally, his sex life was varied to say the least. We
all know that he slept with his wife before they married. The affairs
with Marlowe, Southampton and other men and women have been better kept
secrets until now. The professor has also frequently been overambitious
in his attempts to get into Shakespeare's mind. In attempting to
demonstrate his subject's foresight, far too often he merely
demonstrates his own hindsight, apparently innocently introducing
subjects that lo and behold are used a few pages later in the creation
of a play. The diaries also contain some interesting if not wholly
realistic criticism of the plays. In one of the longest entries, a man
who is ostensibly Thomas Nashe analyses an early draft of The Merchant
of Venice using the kind of sensibilities that are far more
21st-century liberal American than contemporary. Overall, any book that
makes the Shakespearean canon more accessible is to be welcomed. While
the diaries are unlikely to convince anybody that they really reflect
the thoughts of the great man, they are a good mechanism to bring his
life and writings to a wider public.” Philip Fisher, The British Theatre Guide, 19 November 2007.
"The end result is a fictional autobiography, or what Wearing supposes
Shakespeare himself might have written had he kept an ongoing diary.
Thus the diaries include virtually every known fact about Shakespeare,
details of his many theatrical and social contemporaries, allusions to
historical events, as well as what the author's introduction describes
as 'Shakespeare's views' on his own works and those of other
dramatists. In an admirable attempt to lend the diaries an air of
authenticity, Wearing employs only those words that were part of the
dominant Elizabethan and Jacobean vocabularies in addition to lines,
fragments and phrases drawn from Shakespeare's plays and sonnets. There
is, naturally enough, much in the diaries that requires further
explanation and Wearing's ample footnotes are, in that regard, helpful.
An overview of Shakespeare's known activities (of which there are few)
and historical timelines precede each chapter, while an extensive
introduction offers much fuller factual material, extended references
to the plays and other additional details. . . . the depth of Wearing's
scholarship is admirable.” Heidi Maier.
Bernard Shaw and Nancy Astor:
"What a splendid
sequence of letters . . . The pertinent and concise
annotations--extremely well done by J. P. Wearing-resemble lively stage
directions. . . . Wearing's annotations are so thorough he notes that
Violet Pond is interviewed in the supplement to the DVD edition of an
otherwise abysmally bad film, Gosford Park."- John A. Bertolini, English Literature in Transition.
"Wearing's fine
introduction offers a balanced assessment of the Shaw/Astor
relationship, his headnotes provide the necessary sociopolitical
context, and his annotations are scrupulously researched . . . Although
only glimpses of [her] paradoxical temperament emerge in Astor's few
surviving letters to Shaw (who may have destroyed the others himself),
Wearing skillfully completes her portrait from biographies and
autobiographies, diaries and letters, personal accounts by Astor family
members (in particular her niece, actress Joyce Grenfell), and other
sources. One is left with the impression that if Shaw did not succeed
in outrunning his feminine tornado, it was not through lack of will,
but rather because he was drawn to a 'vigor, vitality, and cheek'
(Shavian trademarks!) that left him 'far from indifferent.'"-Michel W.
Pharand, SHAW The Annual of Bernard Shaw Studies.
The London Stage: A Calendar of Plays and Players:
"If nothing else,
these books prove that London was, is, and always will be the theatre
capital of the world. They also represent a mind-boggling amount of
research by their author, for whom I have nothing but praise and
admiration...no one interested in theatre history can be without these
volumes. . . . various indexes provide for easy access...Anyone
researching the career of a film personality who made occasional
British stage appearances cannot afford to be without this volume- and,
of course, it is an absolute "must" for students and scholars of the
theater. "-- CLASSIC IMAGES
"...a major reference source. "-- ARBA
"Scrupulous and superb. "-- BALLET REVIEW
"Wearing's calendars
are important contributions to scholarship, providing the raw material
for work in social and cultural history...Good scholarship and good
browsing for all. "-- CHOICE
"...so chocked full of information American performing arts researchers
should be aware of it even if they think the London stage has nothing
to do with their work. The cultural link between New York and London is
so strong, the exchange of performers and productions so common, little
else needs to be written about it...monumental ongoing series is one of
the best examples I can point to of how modern theatrical research
should be done. There's no better source for the London Stage... "-- THE BIG REEL
"Future editors and theatre historians will find an indispensable reference work in... The London Stage..."-- THE YEAR'S WORK IN ENGLISH STUDIES
"...Remarkably complete and easy to use....
A rich source of factual information...A fascinating overview of a
decade's theatrical activity. "-- THEATRE SURVEY
"...a major reference work for our century. . . . Wearing's latest
addition shows no signs of faltering. His extraordinary project is
quietly turning into a major reference work for our century.... It is
inconceivable that the entire series... will not be on the shelves of
college and university reference rooms. "-- LITERARY RESEARCH
"The historian of
taste will find a vast reservoir of raw data here. The theatre
historian has been given the freedom of a decade, and will know how to
use it. It remains for the reviewer only to applaud the encyclopedic
industry of Dr. Wearing and the resourcefulness with which he has
tackled a problem whose scale is so vast. And now we can look forward
to the 1930's. "-- COMPARATIVE DRAMA
"Provides a wealth of detail...Should be purchased for in-depth theater or English literature collections. "-- REFERENCE BOOKS BULLETIN
"This installment
covers a very fertile decade of the theater...Wearing's series is an
essential tool for scholarly study of British theater. "-- WILSON LIBRARY BULLETIN
G.B. Shaw: An Annotated Bibliography of Writings About Him:
"For the long period
it covers, G. B. Shaw is the prime source of published material on
Shaw, from major books to hundreds upon hundreds of one- or two-page
notices and reviews in several languages. Its chronological
arrangement, combined with the scope of its coverage and its
annotations, give it the enduring quality of being the very best
research tool for tracing the evolution of critical and popular
reactions to Shaw and his plays . . . G. B. Shaw is a vast storehouse
of references to the full range of Shaw material (except for works by
Shaw)."-Charles A. Carpenter, SHAW The Annual of Bernard Shaw Studies
