This Element is interested in how paratexts (in print & live theatre broadcast performances) are used to present "tricky" plays to audiences. How do you frame the value of a work that has been disparaged by critics for centuries, or whose reputation for violence is infamous?

I was so fortunate to find, in claire m. l. bourne & Rory Loughnane , editors who embraced the Element's approach to digital materials and/as printed texts. They welcomed this study and nurtured it with patience at every stage.

I open with Pope, whose fantastic 1725 Preface owns the difficulty of editing *all* of Shakespeare works (with their "great excellencies [...] and almost as great defects"). For my family, whose great excellencies are - thankfully - without great defects

Chapter 1 compares The RSC 's broadcast of Two Gentlemen of Verona (2014) with the footnotes to Johnson's 1765 edition. I ask why TGV is so often offered to audiences as a piece of "juvenilia." For Felicity Brown , who shares with this play the most scene-stealing dog

Chapter 2 considers the challenge of framing Titus Andronicus: a play whose extremities of violence has often seen it offered as a transgressive 'alternative' to ideas of Shakespeare's popular canon. For @MrSoupSpoon , who is also 'deeper read'.

Chapter 3 explores how paratexts to The Merry Wives of Windsor imagine Shakespeare at work. How is the play "explained" by a narrative of artistic pressure? For their wonderful supervision of my work with minimal pressure, to Dr. Peter Kirwan & Erin Sullivan (Shakespeare Institute)

The Conclusion argues that broadcast paratexts are integral to debates about the formation of Shakespeare's contemporary cultural value. It questions how digital paratexts may be informed by, and inform, our reading of Shakespeare's texts. For DWW, who is also integral.

Finally, I'm so fortunate to be able to reproduce in part a transcript of a RSC Live broadcast as an Appendix to this Element. I'm proud that the paratexts to the Book might be enriching in and of themselves. With sincere thanks to Illuminations for his generosity.

Don’t miss your chance to read new Cambridge Element Shakespeare Broadcasts and the Question of Value by Beth Sharrock Free access available until 24 February. cup.org/42IQ2Kt #cambridgeelements #literature

Congratulations to Dr Beth Sharrock Beth Sharrock on a wonderful, convivial launch of 📚Shakespeare Broadcasts and the Question of Value📚 (Cambridge Elements). University of Warwick Shakespeare's cultural value is always a topic close to my heart! Beautifully chaired by Steve Purcell.

This week, Dr Steve Purcell of University of Warwick, talks about '“A Queer Twist to #Shakespeare: Achilles and Patroclus in postwar productions of Troilus and Cressida' - a real teaser for his upcoming book on the play for Manchester University Press's Shakespeare Performed: Globe to Global series

A lovely new review of Light on Darkness in The Tablet by the excellent Felicity Brown thetablet.co.uk/books/the-cand…