Criticism in the UK: The Bard of Britannia

Abstract

After examining the effect of World War I on the Shakespearean criticism of the Cambridge scholars I. A. Richards and William Empson, this chapter focuses on F. R. Leavis and the journal Scrutiny. The last section considers the criticism of Caroline Spurgeon, Una Ellis-Fermor, and John Dover Wilson, highlighting instances where they collaborated, as Spurgeon did with Wilson and Arthur Quiller-Couch on the 1921 Board of Education report for “The Teaching of English in England,” and as Wilson did with Quiller-Couch as co-editors of the New Cambridge Shakespeare series, 1921–1966.

N.B. Britannia: Especially following the “Acts of Union” in 1707, which joined the Kingdoms of Scotland and England, Britannia, the female personification of the island was used as an emblem of British imperial power and unity. She was featured on all modern British coinage series until the redesign in 2008 and still appears annually on the gold and silver “Britannia” bullion coin series. In 2015, a new definitive £2 coin was issued, with a new image of Britannia.