Shakespeare's third keyboard

the long version

"This book springs from an unaccountable gap among the rows of "Shakespeare Studies" on bookshop and library shelves. Playgoers and readers with insatiable appetites for every kind of commentary on Shakespeare's work who discover some volumes devoted to his style may find a musical metaphor illuminating: that Shakespeare had three keyboards at his disposal. The first, blank verse, and the second, prose, have attracted some critical attention; but the third, his rime (as his contemporary printers spelled it), has been neglected. This study aims to fill that gap."--BOOK JACKET.