This unusual and fascinating book convinces readers that names matter in Shakespeare's plays - and that playing with names is a serious business. The focus is Shakespeare - in particular, case-studies of Romeo and Juliet , Comedy of Errors , The Taming of the Shrew , A Midsummer Night's Dream , All's Well that Ends Well , and Troilus and Cressida - but the book also shows. what Shakespeare inherited and where the topic developed after him. - ;How do names attach themselves to particular objects and people and does this connection mean anything? This is a question which goes as far back as Plato and can still be seen in contemporary society with books of Names to Give Your Baby or Reader's Digest columns of apt names and professions. For the Renaissance the vexed question of naming was a subset of the larger but equally vexed subject of language: is language arbitrary and conventional (it is simply an. agreed label for a pre-existing entity) or is it motivated (it creates the entity which it names)?. Shakespeare's Names is a book for language-lovers. Laurie Maguire's witty and learned study examines names, their origins, cultural attitudes to them, and naming practices across centuries and continents, exploring what it means for Shakespeare's characters to bear the names they do. She approaches her subject through close analysis of the associations and use of names in a range of Shakespeare plays, and in a range of performances. The focus is Shakespeare, and in particular six key. plays: Romeo and Juliet, Comedy of Errors, The Taming of the Shrew, A Midsummer Night's Dream, All's Well that Ends Well, and Troilus and Cressida. But the book also shows what Shakespeare inherited and where the topic developed after him. Thus the discussion includes myth, the Bible, Greek literature,. psychological analysis, literary theory, social anthropology,

etymology, baptismal trends, puns, different cultures' and periods' social practice as regards the bestowing and interpreting of names, and English literature in the sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries; the reader will also find material from contemporary journalism, film, and cartoons. - ;...a crucial text not only for those interested in Shakespearian drama but for anyone interetsed in language more generally... - Edel Lamb MLR;Her detailed account of performances...are hugely illuminating. This is a book as much for theatre lovers as for linguists. And anyone who tries to be both will be delighted that she has written it. - David Crystal, Around the Globe;stimulating book - Alastair Fowler, TLS;[a] stimulating book... criticism of such distinction - Alastair Fowler, Times Literary Supplement;engaging, learned, and far-reaching... Shakespeares Names is, to borrow a phrase from Loves Labours Lost, a great feast of language (5.1.36-7), both in its graceful writing and its endearing subject. - David Bevington, Modern Philology;the book's tone and level of discussion will appeal to a wide variety of readers...it evinces... the antiquary's delighted love for his or her material, a form of delight that this book communicates with intelligence and generosity. - Philip Schwyzer, Times Higher Education;[A] witty and learned study - Stratford-upon-Avon Herald.