Yeats and Auden: Some Verbal Parallels

As has been previously observed, Auden verbally resembles Yeats on more than one occasion, and Yeats sometimes resembles Auden. But, as far as Daalder is aware, several genuine or possible parallels are yet to be discussed. Daalder's examples are meant to suggest that Auden imitates Yeats, alludes to him, or shows kinship with him; in this article, Daalder is not, however, concerned with Auden's impact on Yeats

Which is the Most Authoritative Early Translation of Wilde's "Salomé"?

Oscar Wilde originally wrote and published his now famous and highly regarded play "Salomé" in French (Paris and London, 1893). A very inaccurate translation of it into English, by Lord Alfred Douglas, led to much wrangling between Douglas and Wilde, who was profoundly disappointed with Douglas's work. So far, it has been assumed that this translation, which appeared while Wilde was still alive (he died in 1900), must despite all its faults be regarded as in essence 'the' English translation. What has not been realised, however, is that Robert Ross, Wilde's literary executor, ensured that, a few years later, a more accurate translation of "Salomé" was published in a small volume called "Salome: A Tragedy in One Act Translated from the French of Oscar Wilde" (London and New York, 1906), and one much better again under the title "Salome: A Tragedy in One Act Translated from the French of Oscar Wilde with Sixteen Drawings by Aubrey Beardsley" (London and New York, 1912). The 1912 text provides by far the best translation of Wilde's French; it should be regarded as the most authoritative translation of Salomé available

Review of "The Miltonic Moment" by Evans

A favourable review of Martin Evans' book, "The Miltonic Moment" (Lexington, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky, 1998). Evans's thesis is that 'Milton's poems invariably depict the decisive instant in a story, a moment of crisis that takes place just before the action undergoes a dramatic change of course ... The works illuminated here... are all about transition from one form to another... This transformation is often ideological as well as historical or biographical.

Review of The Melancholy Assemblage: Affect and Epistemology in the English Renaissance by Drew Daniel.

Review of The Melancholy Assemblage: Affect and Epistemology in the English Renaissance by Drew Daniel

Review of "Shakespeare and the Classics" edited by Martindale and Taylor

A favourable review of "Shakespeare and the Classics", edited by Charles Martindale and A.B. Taylor (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004)

Review of "Six Renaissance Tragedies" by Gibson

Review of Colin Gibson's book "Six Renaissance Tragedies" (Basingstoke: MacMillan, 1997). Daalder believes that Gibson has been unsuccessful in breaking new ground or bringing valuable work already done by others together in this volume

Shakespeare's "King Lear", 4.2.47-51

Two versions of the IV.ii.47-51 passage are quoted from Alexander's and Foakes's editions because the editorial punctuation of the two texts clearly reflects two quite different interpretations of the passage: in the first, there is no punctuation mark after "come" in line 3, whereas in the second, there is. If we carefully reflect on the two seeming interpretations, it becomes apparent that only one of them actually makes sense, and the other one must be discarded. Daalder argues that, as a result, there should be no punctuation mark after come. Editors who add a punctuation mark as though the First Quarto has wrongly omitted it are in error, and they obscure the sense of the passage

Review of "Breaking Boundaries: Politics and Play in the Drama of Shakespeare and his Contemporaries" by Molly Smith

Review of Molly Smith's book, 'Breaking Boundaries: Politics and Play in the Drama of Shakespeare and His Contemporaries' (Aldershot, 1998)

Review of "Puritans and Libertines: Anglo-French Literary Relations in the Reformation" by Richmond

Review of H.M. Richmond's book "Puritans and Libertines: Anglo-French Literary Relations in the Reformation" (Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press, 1981). This book, according to Daalder, is a disconcertingly uneven one, not least because its virtues and vices are not immediately easy to define

Review of "Sir Philip Sidney" by Duncan-Jones

Review of Katherine Duncan-Jones' book, "Sir Philip Sidney" (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1989)