compulsory reading for any scholar of the period with the faintest interest in death

MICHAEL DOBSON, ESSAYS IN CRITCISM

an absorbing new study of English Renaissance tragedy

IAN DONALDSON, TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT

subtle, patient, and learned study of early modern English tragedy ... Neill's work is exemplary and important ... Issues of Death is the most consistently illuminating and rewarding book on English Renaissance tragedy written in the last twenty years ... the pleasure of learning from Neill's scholarship and critical sensitivity is reinforced by the attractiveness of the physical object in which those qualities are conveyed to us. Oxford University Press have designed the book beautifully, have printed it on excellent paper, and have included a generous number of illustrations.

David Womersley, Jesus College, Oxford, The Review of English Studies, Vol 50, no 199

Neill's work is strong in its comprehensive learning, its clear structure, and his compelling style ... he gives the most complete consideration to death as a subject. His study is a pioneering synthesis of drama and the cultural history of death and mourning in the period.

Margaret J. Arnold, University of Kansas, Renaissance Quarterly

The position may be familiar, but it is important, and Neill's version of it is richly illustrated ... The book forcefully revives the old thesis about the role of the plague, not just in the danse macabre motif but in the mortality crisis of this era as a whole ... a substantive and graceful piece of literary and cultural criticism, wise and learned, well argued and well written, generously and helpfully documented, perceptive about the dominant patterms of some major Renaissance dramatic texts, and informative about their social contexts.

Robert N. Watson, University of California, Los Angeles, MLR, vol 94, no 3, 1999