In this volume, leading scholars assess the contribution of Voltaire, Goethe, Schlegel and Coleridge to the reception of Shakespeare and his plays. Each substantial contribution provides a sketch of its subject's intellectual and professional biography and gives an account of the wider cultural context, before going on to assess the double impact of Shakespeare on the writer and of the writer on subsequent interpretations of Shakespeare.

Series Preface
Notes on Contributors
Note on References to Shakespeare
Introduction
Voltaire
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Friedrich von Schlegel
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Roger Paulin is Schröder Professor Emeritus at Trinity College, University of Cambridge, UK.
Contributors: Michèle Willems (University of Rouen, France), Stephen Fennell (University of Cambridge, UK), Christine Roger (Université de Picardie, France) and Reginald Foakes (UCLA, USA).