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INTRODUCING his book Poisoned Pens: Literary Invective from Amis to Zola, Gary Dexter juxtaposes two quotations by George Bernard Shaw about Shakespeare.

In the first, Shaw says: “I pity the man who cannot enjoy Shakespeare. He has outlasted thousands of abler thinkers, and will outlast a thousand more.” In the second, he lambasts the Bard’s “intellectual sterility” and declares: “The intensity of my impatience with him occasionally reaches such a pitch that it would positively be a relief to dig him up and throw stones . . .” There is, as Dexter suggests, no contest as to which of these is more entertaining. Insult beats eulogy every time. But lest we feel bad for enjoying it, he also argues that, in this field at least: “what is negative is [. . .] generally sincere”.