Wystan Hugh (W.H.) Auden (1907-73) was one of the most loved and influential poets of the twentieth century. Born into a conventional Anglo-Catholic family, his early religious beliefs gave way to left-wing ideology and he visited Spain in support of the anti-Fascist movement in the Civil War there and China in 1938 during the war which ultimately the Chinese Communist Party would win was taking place. After marrying the daughter of the famous German author Thomas Mann to give her British citizenship and hence safety (they then amicably divorced), he subsequently moved to the USA and lived most of the rest of his life there, taking American citizenship and seeing his early religious beliefs reassert themselves. In his native country, even people who know and care little about poetry know his poem The Night Train.

While living in the USA, Auden supported himself by college lecturing and one of the subjects on which he spoke was Shakespeare. No official record of his extensive lectures on this subject was kept and Auden himself never published a proper or authoritative version of them. However, relying principally on the former student Alan Ansen, it has been possible to recreate the lectures more or less in the form in which they were given and they have been published as such. Auden is not fully present in these recreated lectures, therefore, which is quite suitable since of course it is the dramatic and poetical works of Shakespeare which are the focus, not the individuals concerned. Auden’s ideology varied throughout his life but his criticism generally derives from a period in which he was strongly Christian in belief and sentiment and, as more of a constant theme, a proponent of the use of formal language structures and styles to convey meaning. Hence, Auden’s criticism of Shakespeare tends to focus on the quality of the verse, the juxtapositioning of characters and themes to enhance dramatic tension and in the degree to which ends and denouements conform with his own beliefs in how these things should be managed.

Of course, it is possible to argue that Auden’s largely suppressed homosexuality led him to hide his true beliefs behind the formalism of his American period and that a truer reflection of his views may be found in his earlier writings. As ever, the opinion of a reader to this question will depend on the extent to which that reader believes the nature of the individual affects ideology and critical acuity and to what extent personality is relevant in judging ability.