Review of David M. Bergeron’s Shakespeare through Letters

Teachers and lovers of Shakespeare’s plays will especially enjoy this thoughtful book by David Bergeron, who combines his career-long experience of exploring Shakespeare with students with his lifelong interest in letter-writing to argue that paying attention to each moment in the thirty-two plays where letters appear can open up new pathways that will lead readers to new discoveries and greater appreciation of the plays. Shakespeare through Letters (Lexington Books, 2020) proves that thesis by offering detailed close readings of each such moment, whether the scene involves the reading, writing, forging, theft, reception, or delivery of letters.

Bergeron’s introduction makes the excellent point that Shakespeare’s audience was familiar with the culture of letters and that paying close attention to these onstage letters and the reactions to them can reveal significant insight into the text, particularly because the depiction of texts on stage represents a liminal space where written and oral culture both reside. Citing the prevalence of numerous epistolary guides such as Angel Day’s manual, The English Secretary (London, 1586, 1599), Bergeron observes that English audiences would be far more familiar with the conventions of letter-writing than they would have knowledge of the workings of a royal court. Bergeron then details some of the early modern conventions of letters, such as the ways they connect the body of the writer with the letter, or the ways they render the absent speaker present in the moment. He foregrounds the importance of the dangers surrounding…