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

Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 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 natio ...

studies and

English Renaissance theatre The English Renaissance theatre or Elizabethan theatre was the theatre of England from 1558 to 1642. Its most prominent playwrights were William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe and Ben Jonson. Background The term ''English Renaissance theatr ...

. He served as King Alfred Professor of English Literature at Liverpool University 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, along with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. His poems had been in publication for less than four years when he died of tub ...

Jean Racine Jean-Baptiste Racine ( , ; ; 22 December 1639 – 21 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 tr ...

, and Pedro Calderon de la Barca. 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 during the late 15th, 16th and early 17th centuries. It is associated with the pan-European Renaissance that is usually regarded as beginni ...

, including ''

Othello ''The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice'', often shortened to ''Othello'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare around 1603. Set in Venice and Cyprus, the play depicts the Moorish military commander Othello as he is manipulat ...

King Lear ''The Tragedy of King Lear'', often shortened to ''King Lear'', is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare. It is loosely based on the mythological Leir of Britain. King Lear, in preparation for his old age, divides his ...

Macbeth ''The Tragedy of Macbeth'', often shortened to ''Macbeth'' (), is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, estimated to have been first performed in 1606. It dramatises the physically violent and damaging psychological effects of political ambiti ...

,'' '' Troilus and Cressida,'' and '' Richard II.'' 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, 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 *''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