This Companion seeks to bridge the current gap between Shakespeare's poems and plays, as well as between his 'theatrical' and his 'poetical' achievements. Chapters discuss the Sonnets, individual narrative poems, the topic of poetry in the plays, the special contexts important for viewing 'Shakespearean poetry', and the afterlife of this topic. The book presents Shakespeare as a pioneering author of poems and plays, one who remains committed to the absolute intersection of the poetical with the theatrical within the English and European tradition on both stage and page.