Kenneth Arthur Muir (5 May 1907 – 30 September 1996) was a literary scholar and writer, prominent in the fields of

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

studies and

English Renaissance theatre English Renaissance theatre, also known as Renaissance English theatre and Elizabethan theatre, refers to the theatre of England between 1558 and 1642. This is the style of the plays of William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe and Ben Jonson ...

. He served as King Alfred Professor of English Literature at

Liverpool University , mottoeng = These days of peace foster learning , established = 1881 – University College Liverpool1884 – affiliated to the federal Victoria Universityhttp://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukla/2004/4 University of Manchester Act 200 ...

from 1951 to 1974. Muir edited volumes 19 through 33 of the ''Shakespeare Survey,'' and served as chairman of the International Shakespeare Association. He authored and edited a wide range of scholarly articles and books – primarily on Shakespeare and other Elizabethans, but also on various other subjects, including

John Keats John Keats (31 October 1795 – 23 February 1821) was an English poet of the second generation of Romantic poets, with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. His poems had been in publication for less than four years when he died of tuberculo ...

Jean Racine Jean-Baptiste Racine ( , ) (; 22 December 163921 April 1699) was a French dramatist, one of the three great playwrights of 17th-century France, along with Molière and Corneille as well as an important literary figure in the Western traditio ...

, and

Pedro Calderon de la Barca Pedro is a masculine given name. Pedro is the Spanish, Portuguese, and Galician name for ''Peter''. Its French equivalent is Pierre while its English and Germanic form is Peter. The counterpart patronymic surname of the name Pedro, meaning " ...

. He edited modern texts of many classic plays of the

English Renaissance The English Renaissance was a Cultural movement, cultural and Art movement, artistic movement in England from the early 16th century to the early 17th century. It is associated with the pan-European Renaissance that is usually regarded as beginni ...

, including ''

Othello ''Othello'' (full title: ''The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice'') is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare, probably in 1603, set in the contemporary Ottoman–Venetian War (1570–1573) fought for the control of the Island of Cypru ...

King Lear ''King Lear'' is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare. It is based on the mythological Leir of Britain. King Lear, in preparation for his old age, divides his power and land between two of his daughters. He becomes destitute and insane an ...

Macbeth ''Macbeth'' (, full title ''The Tragedie of Macbeth'') is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. It is thought to have been first performed in 1606. It dramatises the damaging physical and psychological effects of political ambition on those w ...

,'' ''

Troilus and Cressida ''Troilus and Cressida'' ( or ) is a play by William Shakespeare, probably written in 1602. At Troy during the Trojan War, Troilus and Cressida begin a love affair. Cressida is forced to leave Troy to join her father in the Greek camp. Meanwh ...

,'' and ''

Richard II Richard II (6 January 1367 – ), also known as Richard of Bordeaux, was King of England from 1377 until he was deposed in 1399. He was the son of Edward the Black Prince, Prince of Wales, and Joan, Countess of Kent. Richard's father died ...

.'' He also edited the collected poems of Sir Thomas Wyatt. Muir is vulnerable to confusion with other authors with very similar names:

John Kenneth Muir John Kenneth Muir (born December 3, 1969) is an American literary critic. As of 2022, he has written thirty reference books in the fields of film and television, with a particular focus on the horror and science fiction genres. Biography Born ...

, Kenneth B. Muir, Kenneth R. Muir, and Kenneth W. Muir.

Selected works of Kenneth Muir

*''Elizabethan Lyrics: A Critical Anthology'' (1952) *''John Milton'' (1955) *''Elizabethan and Jacobean Prose 1550-1620'' (1956) *''Jean Racine'' (1960) *''Shakespeare as Collaborator'' (1960) *''Last Periods of Shakespeare, Racine, Ibsen'' (1961) *''The Voyage to Illyria'' (1970) with Sean O'Loughlin *''A New Companion to Shakespeare Studies'' (1971) with

Samuel Schoenbaum Samuel Schoenbaum (6 March 1927 – 27 March 1996) was a leading 20th-century Shakespearean biographer and scholar. Biography Born in New York, Schoenbaum taught at Northwestern University from 1953 to 1975, serving for the last four years o ...

*''The Sources of Shakespeare's Plays'' (1977) *''Shakespeare's Sonnets'' (1979) *''Shakespeare's Tragic Sequence'' (1979) *''Shakespeare's Plays in Quarto'' (1981) with Michael J. B. Allen *''Macbeth'' (1951, 1984) Arden Second Series *''Aspects of Macbeth'' (1977) edited with Philip Edwards *''The Singularity of Shakespeare'' (1977)

References

* Edwards, Philip, et al., eds. ''Shakespeare's Style: Essays in Honor of Kenneth Muir.'' Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1980. * Kettle, Arnold, et al. ''KM 80: A Birthday Album for Kenneth Muir: Tuesday, 5 May 1987''. Liverpool, Liverpool University Press, 1987. Shakespearean scholars 1907 births 1996 deaths 20th-century English writers English male writers Academics of the University of Liverpool {{UK-academic-bio-stub