John Dover Wilson

Who was John Dover Wilson?

John Dover Wilson CH was a professor and scholar of Renaissance drama, focusing particularly on the work of William Shakespeare. Born at Mortlake, he attended Lancing College, Sussex, Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge and taught at King's College London before becoming Regius Professor of English literature at the University of Edinburgh.

Wilson was primarily known for two lifelong projects. He was the chief editor, with the assistance of Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, of the New Shakespeare, a series of editions of the complete plays published by Cambridge University Press. Of those editions, the one of Hamlet was his particular focus, and he published a number of other books on the play, supporting the textual scholarship of his edition as well as offering an interpretation. His What Happens in Hamlet, first published in 1935, is among the more influential books ever written on the play, being reprinted several times including a revised second edition in 1959.

Wilson's textual work was characterized by considerable boldness and confidence in his own judgement.