The Reader's Companion to The Death of Shakespeare

The Death of Shakespeare imagines how the plays and poetry attributed to William Shakespeare were written. Unlike the outpourings of new biographies about Shakespeare, much of The Death of Shakespeare is based on fact. Since it is not customary to add footnotes or end notes to works of fiction, the Reader’s Companion to The Death of Shakespeare tracks the chapters in The Death of Shakespeare and explains what is supported in the historical record and what is not. It is in the nature of an “Ancilla,” which is defined as a “helper, an aid.” Oxford English Dictionary. The best description is found in the introduction to the Ancilla to Classical Reading by Moses Hadas, Columbia University Press, 1954: “‘Companion’ might be a proper description, but as a book title that word has come to designate a reference work that is alphabetically arranged and reasonably complete. This is neither. … Long preoccupation with a subject begets curiosity about matters essentially peripheral or even irrelevant to its main issues, and I have thought that others interested in ancient books might enjoy such partial satisfaction of similar curiosity as I am able to offer.”