This book presents a series of essays exploring the cultural notion that has come to be known as “Shakespeare.” Shakespeare's collaborators are not only those who were his contemporaries but also those who have given new life to his works in a new garb, be it a play, a theatre production, a film, a TV play, a novel, a museum item, or a collection of illustrated strips.The collection presents papers given at an international conference entitled Shakespeare and His Collaborators over the Centuries, which took place at the Faculty of Arts, Masaryk University (Brno, Czech Republic) on February 8-11, 2006. The individual contributions deal with the notion of collaborating with Shakespeare both in a literal as well as figurative sense. The essays in the first section discuss the literary and cultural milieus which were conducive to the creation of Shakespeare’s works. The second part discusses early adaptations and variants of Shakespeare’s plays while the third section offers a broader range of artistic (as well as idolatrous) repercussions of the Shakespearean canon.