The historical approach provides a comprehensive overview, plotting the attitudes towards Shakespeare’s language, as well as a history of its study. This approach reveals how different cultural and literary trends have moulded these attitudes and reflects changing linguistic climates; the book also includes a chapter that looks to the future. Shakespeare’s Language is therefore not only an essential guide to the language of Shakespeare, but it offers crucial insights to broader approaches to language as a whole.
Keith Johnson is Emeritus Professor of Linguistics and Language Education at the University of Lancaster, UK. He is the author of The History of Early English (2016) and Shakespeare’s English (2013).