Shakespeare References in The Western Heritage Volume B: 1300-1815

I'm going through all my books, reading them again, and finding Shakespeare references in most of them, including this history book by Donald Kagan, Steven Ozment and Frank M. Turner. The first reference is to Richard The Third: "During the reign of the Tudors a tradition arose that painted Richard III as an unprincipled villain who murdered Edward's sons in the Tower of London to secure the throne. The best-known version of this characterization - unjust according to some - is found in Shakespeare's Richard III" (p. 347). Next there is a reference to Shakespeare: "More's Utopia (1516), a criticism of contemporary society, still rivals the plays of Shakespeare as the most-read sixteenth-century English work" (p. 371). At the beginning of the fourteenth chapter is a list of topics, and Shakespeare is mentioned in this list: "William Shakespeare: Dramatist of the Age" (p. 495). Of course, Shakespeare is mentioned in the chapter. The authors write, "Shakespeare's dramas provide an insight into virtually the entire range of late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century English world views" (p. 504). And there is a short section of the chapter on Shakespeare, which begins: "Shakespeare (1564-1616), the greatest playwright in the English language, was born in Stratford-on-Avon. He liverd there almost all of his life except for the years when he wrote in London. There is much less factual knowledge about him than one would expect of such an important figure" (p. 505). And then: "The tragedies are considered his unique achievement. Four of these were written withint a three-year period: Hamlet (1603), Othello (1604), King Lear (1605), and Macbeth (1606). The most original of the tragedies, Romeo and Juliet (1597), transformed an old popular story into a moving drama of 'star-cross'd lovers'" (p. 506). This chapter also contains a list of "Major Works Of Seventeenth-Century Literature And Philosophy," which includes "1605 King Lear (Shakespeare)" (p. 509). At the end of that chapter is a list of suggested books, including "HARDIN CRAIG, Shakespeare: A Historical and Critical Study with Annotated Texts of Twenty-one Plays (1958)" (p. 521). Shakespeare is mentioned again later in the book: "As an alternative to such dependence on the classical forms, August Wilhelm von Schlegel praised the 'romantic' literature of Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Shakespeare, the Arthurian legends, Cervantes, and Calderon" (p. 716). And then: "He praised Shakespeare and Lord Byron and criticized his own countryman, the seventeenth-century classical dramatist Racine" (p. 716). And finally: "Coleridge also made major contributions to Romantic literary criticism in his lectures on Shakespeare and in Biographia Literaria (1817), which presents his theories of poetry" (p. 716). The copy I read was from the fourth edition, published in 1991.