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I am delighted (and rather touched) that Tom McAlindon thinks it is still worth firing paper bullets at my Patriarchal Bard , written 20 years ago ("Battle of Will for the Bard's soul", December 24/31). Since those heady days, a new generation of scholars has extended the field of Shakespeare studies into fascinating research areas. There is bound to be scope for critical disagreement, but it seldom displays what McAlindon describes, in the blurb for his new book, as "a marked decline in standards of analysis, interpretation and argument". Instead, I see remarkable intellectual and creative energy that has sustained Shakespeare studies in the face of punishing pressures from the research assessment exercise and cuts in funding.

Kate McLuskie
Shakespeare Institute