About the Author:
James Hirsh, Professor of English at Georgia State University, has published The Structure of Shakespearean Scenes and articles in Modern Language Quarterly, Shakespeare Quarterly, Essays in Theatre, and elsewhere. He has edited New Perspectives on Ben Johnson and an issue of Studies in the Literary Imagination on English Renaissance Drama and Audience Response.

Shakespeare and the History of Soliloquies provides the first systematic and comprehensive account of the conventions governing soliloquies in Western drama from antiquity to the twentieth century. Avoiding anachronistic assumptions that have marred earlier commentaries on soliloquies, the present study is based on a painstaking analysis of the actual practices of dramatists from each age of theatrical history. This investigation has uncovered evidence that refutes longstanding commonplaces about soliloquies in general, and especially about the "To be, or not to be" episode.