RSA 2018 The Bard's Bookshelf: Shakespeare's Use of Sources
William Shakespeare’s oeuvre is comprised of multiple forms, including the play, the sonnet, and the narrative poem and spans a wide variety of genres, including comedy, tragedy, history, epic, and romance. Because of his contributions to the western canon, modern scholarship tends to focus on Shakespeare the writer. Yet, we often forget another aspect of his literary life: Shakespeare the reader. In crafting his work, Shakespeare borrows heavily from Classical, Medieval, and Renaissance literature of all genres, including poetry, epic, drama, and prose fiction, and incorporates references to mythological, religious, rhetorical and philosophical texts throughout his works.