Shakespeare's Blank Verse: An Alternative History is a study both of Shakespeare's versification and of its place in the history of early modern blank verse (unrhymed iambic pentameter). It ranges from the continental precursors of English blank verse in the early sixteenth century through the drama and poetry of Shakespeare's contemporaries to the editing of blank verse in the eighteenth century and beyond. Alternative in its argumentation as well as its arguments, Shakespeare's Blank Verse tries out fresh ways of thinking about meter--by shunning doctrinaire methods of apprehending a writer's versification, and by reconnecting meter to the fundamental literary, dramatic, historical, and social questions that animate Shakespeare's drama.

"a scintillating monograph." - Emanuel Stelzer, Memoria di Shakespeare

"fascinating [...] refreshing [...] richly researched." - Molly Clark, The Review of English Studies

"The virtues of 'Shakespeare's Blank Verse: An Alternative History' are many [...] thoughtful and provocative analysis peppers the book." - Andrew Moran, Literary Imagination