Amazon.com (ISBN 0415050766, Paperback)

When Shakespeare's plays were first performed, they were popular with everyone: they weren't classics yet or a requisite course to be suffered. The stories were good entertainment for the masses, with a bawdy streak a mile wide. Certainly Shakespeare's depth and insight into human nature was appreciated, but surely some came just for the dirt. Shakespeare's contemporaries didn't need a glossary to get the jokes, but we do. Thank goodness for Eric Partridge's dictionary of Elizabethan smut, so we can get the double-entendres, too. Thus, "hardening of one's brows" (The Winter's Tale) refers to being cuckolded, "laced mutton" (Two Gentleman of Verona) is a prostitute, "riggish" (Cleopatra) means lascivious, and "groping for trout in a peculiar river" (Measure for Measure) means copulating with a woman. With an essay on the sexual, homosexual, and nonsexual bawdy in Shakespeare, an index to the essay, and a full glossary of bawdry, Partridge puts the nudge and wink back in Shakespeare.

Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0525470557, Paperback)

Shakespeare's Bawdymust rank as one of the great Eric Partridge's most outstanding accomplishments. In it Partridge, regarded by Anthony Burgess as 'a human lexicographer, like Samuel Johnson', was able to combine his detailed knowledge of Shakespeare with his unrivalled knowledge of Elizabethan slang and innuendo. It is, as he describes it, 'a literary and psychological essay and a comprehensive glossary', which opened the window upon a long-avoided aspect of Shakespeare's plays. Shakespeare's Bawdyis a work of delight and insight that has an appeal that transcends time and class. Acclaimed by Stanley Wells, editor of The Oxford Shakespeare as 'a classic of Shakespeare scholarship', it takes its place alongside other classics with a well-deserved, if slightly cheeky, impunity. For sheer reading pleasure, Shakespeare's Bawdyis a wonderful addition to any bookshelf.