William Shakespeare’s plays are riddled with passages, scenes and sudden plot twists which baffle and confound the most devoted playgoer and the most attentive commentator. Why, for
example, didn't Hamlet succeed to the throne of Denmark at the instant of his father’s death? (It’s not because the Danish throne was elective.) Why does Chorus in Romeo and Juliet promise
his audience "two houres trafficke of our stage" when the play obviously runs almost three hours? And what is a "dram of eale"? This engaging and lucid book solves these tantalizing riddles
and many others.