This book takes off from three claims: 1) among Shakespeareans at present, the level of conviction required to sustain a healthy critical practice is problematically if not dangerously low; 2) the qualities which the Romantics valued in an engagement with Shakespeare are either ignored these days or fundamentally misunderstood; and 3) there is a causal relation between the first two points. The Romantics invented Shakespeare studies, and in losing contact with our origins, we have not been able to develop an adequate alternative foundation on which to build our work. The book is directed primarily to Shakespeareans, including theater people, secondarily to those interested in the current state of academic criticism who, since the well-being of Shakespeare studies goes hand in hand with the well-being of literary studies, should find it interesting as well.