Timon of Athens has struck many readers as rough and unpolished, perhaps
even unfinished, though to others it has appeared as Shakespeare's most
profound tragic allegory. Described by Coleridge as `the stillborn twin
of King Lear', the play has nevertheless proved brilliantly effective in
performance over the past thirty or forty years.This edition accepts and
contributes to the growing scholarly consensus that the play is not
Shakespeare's solo work, but is the result of his collaboration with
Thomas Middleton, who wrote about a third of it. The editors offer an
account of the process of collaboration and discuss the different ways
that each author contributes to the play's relentless look at the
corruption and greed of society. They provide, as well, detailed
annotation of the text and explore the wide range of critical and
theatrical interpretations that the play has engendered. Tracing both
its satirical and tragic strains, their introduction presents a
perspective on the play's meanings that combines careful elucidation of
historical context with analysis of its relevance to modern-day society.
An extensive and well-illustrated account of the play's production
history generates a rich sense of how the play can speak to different
historical moments in specific and rewarding ways.