Shakespearean Puzzles: Essays on Textual, Dramatic, and Biographical Enigmas in Some Plays by Shakespeare

“Fleissner’s book summarizes, interrogates, and extends both long-held assumptions about Shakespeare’s work and newer claims alike. His speculative web of connections among the plays, the life, the religion, and the literary inspirations of Shakespeare links the unexpected and suggests potentially fruitful avenues for further study.” – Dr. Robin L. Inboden, Professor, Department of English, Wittenberg University

“The theme of religion seems particularly apt at a time when the role of religion in contemporary life, both nationally and globally is much worried. . . . What if religion, then, was bred in the bone of Shakespeare’s world? . . . How did Shakespeare play with that which was so basic and vital in his world?.” – Dr. Jeffrey W. Crawford, Professor of Philosophy Emeritus, Central State University

“No detail is too small to escape Fleissner’s ascidian attention as he weaves seemingly unconnected observations with the help of both scholarly factoids and experiential details . . .” - Dr. J. Arthur Faber, Professor of English Emeritus, Wittenberg University

My Foreword
An Introductory Forward Foreword
The Prefaces and Acknowledgements
1 A Synopsis: My Basic Foreword
2 Aspects of the Wittenberg Connection: Is Not Hamlet Symbolically Lutheran?
3 Measure for Measure as Lenten Entertainment (Proper)
4 The Effect of a Shakespearean “Bed-trick Device” in His Life—as Well as His Drama
5 More Ado About the Edmunds: What Is in a name?
6 Shakespeare and the Oxford Association: Reverting to Biographer Honan
7 The Nature of the Rival Poet and Shakespeare’s Sonnet 86
8 Ophelia is Expecting, Not Merely Expectant: Margarete Anticipated
9 A Hamlet at Large?: A Possible Piratical Identification Concerning the Prince’s Father
Bibliography
Index