Written for performance, Shakespeare's plays are very different texts from any intended for a reader with book in hand and they require a different kind of attention. John Russell Brown's latest book attempts a description of Shakespeare's distinctive practice as a writer for the stage and, in doing so, suggests ways of responding to the plays which bring them alive in the mind as if in performance. It is a book for use, to quicken both eye and ear while reading the texts and to enliven almost any critical debate.