This study investigates the capacity of Shakespeare's texts obviously destined for stage performances to generate images and mental colours in the readers' and in the spectators' minds.

Such notions as Ut pictura poesis and the paragone are discussed in the first part of this book, along with the function and nature of colours. After considering the sets of correspondences and the major differences between texts and images, the author presents and analyzes some of his own illustrations of Shakespearean characters.

Jean-Louis Claret, both a university professor specialised in Shakespeare's theatre and an illustrator, proposes to shed light on the process that led him from the perusal of the written text to the visualization of visages. The voice of poets is unconventionally called upon to shed light on the complex mechanisms he describes.