This study of the many poets, musicians and visual artists portrayed or described in Shakespeare's plays and poems reveals a fascination with art and its makers that continued to influence Shakespeare's work throughout his career. It also uncovers unexpected aspects of an enthusiastic Elizabethan consumption of artworks, an enthusiasm that had significant bearing on the quite new profession that Shakespeare himself followed. A high valuation placed on art and artists, and at the same time certain fears of these and fears for these, made for a very complex reception of the figure of the artist, and Shakespeare's treatments were equal to that complexity.

B. J. Sokol is Emeritus Professor of the University of London (Goldsmith's College) and Senior Research Associate at University College London, UK.

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
List of Abbreviations
Introduction
Chapter One. Painters and Sculptors in Shakespeare's Poems
Chapter Two. Painters and Sculptors in Shakespearian Plays
Chapter Three. Poets in Shakespeare's Plays
Chapter Four. Poets in Shakespeare's Poems
Chapter Five. Shakespeare's Musicians: Mimetic
Chapter Six. Shakespeare's Mythical Musicians
Afterword
Bibliography
Index