Gerald Eades Bentley

Gerald Eades Bentley (September 15, 1901 – July 25, 1994) was an American academic and literary scholar, best remembered for his The Jacobean and Caroline Stage, published by Oxford University Press in seven volumes between 1941 and 1968. That work, modeled on the classic four-volume work The Elizabethan Stage by Edmund Kerchever Chambers, has itself become a standard and essential reference work on English Renaissance theatre. Bentley was born in Brazil, Indiana, the son of a Methodist clergyman. Originally intending to be a creative writer, he changed his career to literary scholarship during his graduate studies. He earned his B.A. at DePauw University (1923), his M.A. in English at the University of Illinois (1926), and his Ph.D. at...