Henry Hitchings

All the men and women merely players

Henry Hitchings enjoys two new books on Shakespeare (to add to the 12,554) — and especially a description of Edmund Kean’s electrifying, drunk Hamlet in 1814

Charlotte and Susan Cushman as Romeo and Juliet c. 1849. Now comparatively obscure,Charlotte was widely considered the most powerful actress on the 19th-century stage. Getty Images.

  • Shakespeare

    Paul Edmondson

    Profile, pp. 192

  • Great Shakepeare Actors: Burbage to Branagh

    Stanley Wells

    OUP, pp. 314

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