The author, who teaches English at the University of California at Berkeley, has here assembled twenty essays by contemporary scholars. In the Introduction, he states that 'wherever possible, each essay defines, exemplifies or attacks a critical position relevant to all or a good many of Shakespeare's plays'. The collection includes Ernst Kris' well-known study of Prince Hal's Conflict,1 which Professor Rabkin introduces with the reproach that 'the Freudians have not yet produced a sufficiently impressive theoretical defense of their approach to Shakespeare'.