Shakespeare's career-long fascination with the Mediterranean made the association a natural one for this first World Shakespeare Congress of the Third Millennium. The plenary lectures and selected papers in this volume represent some of the best contemporary thought and writing on Shakespeare.

Tom Clayton is Regent's Professor of English Language and Literature and chair of the Classical Civilization Program at the University of Minnesota.
Susan Brock is Head of Library and Information Resources at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in Stratford-upon-Avon and Honorary Fellow of the Shakespeare Institute of the University of Birmingham.
Vicente Forés is Associate Professor of English at the University of Valencia.