This revised edition of the successful Casebook first published in 1969, has been brought up-to-date with the inclusion of more recent criticism, whilst retaining early comments and critiques. Contributors include A.C.Bradley, A.Wilson Knight, Enid Welsford, George Orwell, Robert B.Heilman, Barbara Everett, John Holloway, W.R.Elton, Stanley Cavell and Stephen Greenblatt.

Shaughnessy's Eugene O'Neill in Ireland: The Critical Response is both more and less than a detailed study of how O'Neill's plays have fared in his ancestral homeland. Part theater history and part influence study, part production sourcebook and part anthology of criticism, this volume touches on all the possible connections between the playwright and the country to which he was so closely tied. American Literature Although Eugene O'Neill felt that his Irishness was the single feature that came closest to explaining his work, the reaction of the Irish critics and public to his plays has never been systematically explored. This new study is the first to focus on Irish perceptions of O'Neill. It traces the discussion carried on by Irish critics, scholars, and theatre professionals and reveals, in the process, many exciting new insights into the nature and significance of the dramatist's work. A balanced and informative treatment, it includes the author's penetrating analysis of the ways O'Neill's Irish heritage affected his work, a selection of essays by Irish critics, and information on Irish productions of his plays. Shaughnessy first examines the dimensions of the playwright's Irish connections -- his ancestry and cultural heritage and his use of Irish-related themes, symbols, and language. He looks at the history of productions staged in Ireland between 1922 and 1987 and at the Irish perceptions of 'the O'Neill issue.' Drawing on reviews, personal interviews, questionnaires, and letters, Shaughnessy reveals the complexity of the controversy surrounding the playwright's work. Selected essays, editorials, reviews, and scholarly commentaries -- many reprinted here for the first time -- demonstrate the range of opinion and the continuing impact of O'Neill plays on Irish thought. A catalog of productions of O'Neill plays in both the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland provides information on the dates and locations of productions as well as casts and directors. This lively and informative work also includes a selection of superb photos of O'Neill productions staged by the Abbey Theatre, Dublin Gate Theatre, and Belfast Lyric Players.

Shakespeare and the Middle Ages brings together a distinguished, multidisciplinary group of scholars to rethink the medieval origins of modernity. Shakespeare provides them with the perfect focus, since his works turn back to the Middle Ages as decisively as they anticipate the modern world: almost all of the histories depict events during the Hundred Years War, and King John glances even further back to the thirteenth-century Angevins; several of the comedies, tragedies, and romances rest on medieval sources; and there are important medieval antecedents for some of the poetic modes in which he worked as well.
Several of the essays reread Shakespeare by recovering aspects of his works that are derived from medieval traditions and whose significance has been obscured by the desire to read Shakespeare as the origin of the modern. These essays, taken cumulatively, challenge the idea of any decisive break between the medieval period and early modernity by demonstrating continuities of form and imagination that clearly bridge the gap. Other essays explore the ways in which Shakespeare and his contemporaries constructed or imagined relationships between past and present. Attending to the way these writers thought about their relationship to the past makes it possible, in turn, to read against the grain of our own teleological investment in the idea of early modernity. A third group of essays reads texts by Shakespeare and his contemporaries as documents participating in social-cultural transformation from within. This means attending to the way they themselves grapples with the problem of change, attempting to respond to new conditions and pressures while holding onto customary habits of thought and imagination. Taken together, the essays in this volume revisit the very idea of transition in a refreshingly non-teleological way.

Money, magic and the theatre were powerful forces in early modern England. Money was acquiring an independent, efficacious agency, as the growth of usury allowed financial signs to reproduce without human intervention. Magic was coming to seem Satanic, as the manipulation of magical signs to performative purposes was criminalized in the great 'witch craze.' And the commercial, public theatre was emerging - to great controversy - as the perfect medium to display, analyse and evaluate the newly autonomous power of representation in its financial, magical and aesthetic forms. Money and Magic in Early Modern Drama is especially timely in the current era of financial deregulation and derivatives, which are just as mysterious and occult in their operations as the germinal finance of 16th-century London. Chapters examine the convergence of money and magic in a wide range of early modern drama, from the anonymous Mankind through Christopher Marlowe to Ben Jonson, concentrating on such plays as The Alchemist, The New Inn and The Staple of News. Several focus on Shakespeare, whose analysis of the relations between finance, witchcraft and theatricality is particularly acute in Timon of Athens, The Comedy of Errors, Antony and Cleopatra and The Winter's Tale.

* The only book that provides a thorough introduction to the current state of play in Australian theatre, including coverage of previously marginalized voices; * Platforms previously marginalized voices in Australia, covering the work of writers of colour, queer writers and gender diverse writers; * Includes a series of duologues between major contemporary Australian playwrights which are provided in both written and podcast form.

Performing Greek Drama in Oxford is an absorbing celebration of the performance and reception of Greek drama in Oxford. Amanda Wrigley traces enduring connections between antiquity and dramatic performance in modern Oxford, and discusses the landmark events from the 16th century to the 1970s.This performance history of classical texts, especially those by the Greek dramatists, illuminates contemporary responses to debates on such matters as the position of women students, the 'dangers' perceived to be associated with undergraduate acting, and the position of classics within the curriculum at the University of Oxford. The book consistently engages with the history of theatrical performance of ancient plays beyond Oxford, for example, John Masefield's Boars Hill Players, Penelope Wheeler's Greek plays at the Front, and the link with the London stage through companies touring to Oxford, such as that led by Sybil Thorndike. Many of these engagements with Greek drama were facilitated by the connection with the classical scholar Gilbert Murray, who plays a central part in the history.This performance history of classical texts, especially those by the Greek dramatists, illuminates contemporary responses to debates on such matters as the position of women students, the 'dangers' perceived to be associated with undergraduate acting, and the position of classics within the curriculum at the University of Oxford. The book consistently engages with the history of theatrical performance of ancient plays beyond Oxford, for example, John Masefield's Boars Hill Players, Penelope Wheeler's Greek plays at the Front, and the link with the London stage through companies touring to Oxford, such as that led by Sybil Thorndike. Many of these engagements with Greek drama were facilitated by the connection with the classical scholar Gilbert Murray, who plays a central part in the history.

This book (hardcover) is part of the TREDITION CLASSICS. It contains classical literature works from over two thousand years. Most of these titles have been out of print and off the bookstore shelves for decades. The book series is intended to preserve the cultural legacy and to promote the timeless works of classical literature. Readers of a TREDITION CLASSICS book support the mission to save many of the amazing works of world literature from oblivion. With this series, tredition intends to make thousands of international literature classics available in printed format again - worldwide.

Volumes in this series trace the course of Shakespeare criticism, play-by-play, from the earliest items of recorded criticism to the beginnings of the modern period. The focus of the documentary material is from the late 18th century to the first half of the 20th century. The series makes a major contribution to our understanding of the plays and traditions of Shakespearean criticism as they have developed from century to century. The introduction to each volume constitutes an important chapter of literary history, tracing the entire critical career of each play from the beginnings to the present day. Includes English, European and American excerpts from Alexander Pope, Samuel Johnson, William Hazlitt, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Ruskin, Walt Whitman, Algernon Charles Swinburne, George Bernard Shaw, John Masefield, Lytton Strachey, John Middleton Murray, and Wyndham Lewis.

What is Restoration comedy? What pleasure does it offer its audience, and what significance does it find in exploring that pleasure? Edward Burns here provides a new account of the origins and nature of Restoration comedy as a distinct genre. The book enlarges the usual focus with a wider range of writers than the conventional ossified canon taking in a revaluation of many rarely studied dramatists, a reconsideration of pastoral, and the instatement of women writers as major contributors to the culture of the age. It offers a substantial and original interpretation of one of the most intriguing of seventeenth-century literature forms.

This volume offers a new introduction which provides a wide-ranging survey of criticism of "Macbeth" and four new essays. The new essays from Muriel Bradbrook, Malcolm Evans, Graham Holderness and Germaine Greer bring this edition up-to-date with current critical approaches. The essays are contributed by - A.C. Bradley, S. Freud, G. Wilson Knight, C. Spurgeon, J. Masefield, C. Brooks, L.C. Knight's, M. Bradbrook, G. Holderness, G. Greer and M. Evans.

This study offers students, performers and general readers alike an expansive introduction to the rich history and exciting performance potential of Shakespeare's play. An extensive commentary focuses on the challenges to actors and directors in putting Richard III onstage, and encourages the reader to engage imaginatively with Shakespeare's words. Separate chapters on stage, film, textual and critical history combine with the commentary to form a comprehensive and wide-ranging study of one of Shakespeare's most popular and theatrically thrilling plays.

York Notes Advanced offer a fresh and accessible approach to English Literature. This market-leading series has been completely updated to meet the needs of today's A-level and undergraduate students. Written by established literature experts, York Notes Advanced intorduce students to more sophisticated analysis, a range of critical perspectives and wider contexts.

FIRST WITCH. When shall we three meet again? In thunder, lightning, or in rain? SECOND WITCH. When the hurlyburly's done, When the battle's lost and won. THIRD WITCH. That will be ere the set of sun. FIRST WITCH. Where the place? SECOND WITCH. Upon the heath. THIRD WITCH. There to meet with Macbeth. FIRST WITCH. I come, Graymalkin.

This volume, in honour of Angus M. Bowie, collects seventeen original essays on Greek comedy. Its contributors treat questions of origin, genre and artistic expression, interpret individual plays from different angles (literary, historical, performative) and cover aspects of reception from antiquity to the 20th century. Topics that have not received much attention so far, such as the prehistory of Doric comedy or music in Old Comedy, receive a prominent place. The essays are arranged in three sections: (1) Genre, (2) Texts and Contexts, (3) Reception. Within each section the chapters are as far as possible arranged in chronological order, according to historical time or to the (putative) dates of the plays under discussion. Thus readers will be able to construe their own diachronic and thematic connections, for example between the portrayal of stock characters in early Doric farce and developed Attic New Comedy or between different forms of comic reception in the fourth century BC. The book is intended for professional scholars, graduate and undergraduate students. Its wide range of subjects and approaches will appeal not only to those working on Greek comedy, but to anyone interested in Greek drama and its afterlife.

What is the relation between the language being heard and the picture being simultaneously exhibited on the stage? Typically there is an identity between sound and sight, but often there is a divergence between what the audience hears and what is sees. These divergences are 'insets' and examines the motives, mechanics and poetic qualities of these narrative poems embedded in the plays.

First published in 1986. 'Impressively open to the complexity of cultural discourses, to the ways in which one discursive form may function as a screen for another above all to the political entailment of genre.'Stephen Greenblatt. What is the relation between literary and political power? How do the symbolic dimensions of social practice and the social dimensions of artistic practice relate to one another? Power on Display considers Shakespeare's progression from romantic comedies and history plays to tragedy and romance in the light of the general process of cultural change in the period.

First published in 1957. This edition re-issues the second edition of 1965. Recognized as one of the leading books in its field, The English History Play in the Age of Shakespeare presents the most comprehensive account available of the English historical drama from its beginning to the closing of the theatres in 1642 and relates this development to Renaissance historiography and Elizabethan political theory.

Performing Transversally expands on Bryan Reynolds' controversial transversal theory in exciting ways while offering groundbreaking analyses of Shakespeare's plays--Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, Taming of the Shrew, Titus Andronicus, Henry V, The Tempest, and Coriolanus--and textual, filmic, and theatrical adaptations of them. With his collaborators, Reynolds challenges traditional readings of Shakespeare, reevaluating the critical methodologies that characterize them, in regard to issues of cultural difference, authorship, representation, agency, and iconography. Reynolds demonstrates the value of his “investigative-expansive mode,” outlining a “transversal poetics” that points toward a critical future that is more aware of its subjective interconnectedness with the topics and audiences it seeks to engage than is reflected in most Shakespeare criticism and literary-cultural scholarship.

First published in 1951. 'The book has the sterling qualities of shrewd sense and acumen that mark the 'rational' classical school of Shakespeare criticism.' Notes and Queries 'Professor Duthie's approach is direct and extremely objective. With no axe to grind, he pays impartial court to most of the great schools of Shakespearian criticism.' Cambridge Daily News 'Professor Duthie has much to say that is wise and judicious'. Times Literary Supplement. Contents include: Shakespeare's Characters and Truth to Life; Shakespeare and the Order-Disorder Antithesis; Comedy; Imaginative Interpretation and Troilus and Cressida; History; Tragedy; The Last Plays.

First published in 1971. This volume explains and analyses the last plays of Shakespeare as dramatic structures. Beginning from the dark comedies, the author describes the ways in which Shakespeare was affected by the new techniques and possibilities for drama opened up by the innovations of the years after 1600, notably by the rise in children's companies. The main line of development of Shakespeare's dramatic skills is shown as leading from the dark comedies, through the late tragedies, to the last plays. A major part of the book is devoted to analyses of Cymbeline, The Winter's Tale, The Tempest and King Henry VIII.

First published in 1952. An invaluable introduction to Shakespeare, this book places Shakespeare's work and criticism against the background of Elizabethan life in its historical, social, political, religious, linguistic and literary aspects. Contents include: The Problem of Interpretation; Shakespeare at Work; Man and Society; Man and the Universe; The Inner Life.

Since the mid-1950s, when the works of Samuel Beckett began to attract sustained critical attention, commentators have tended either to dismiss his oeuvre as nihilist or defend it as anti-nihilist. On the one side are figures such as Georg Lukacs; on the other, some of the most influential philosophers and literary theorists of the post-war era, from Theodor Adorno to Alain Badiou. Taking as his point of departure Nietzsche's description of nihilism as the 'uncanniest of all guests', Weller calls this critical tradition into question, arguing that the relationship between Beckett's texts and nihilism is one that will always be missed by those who are simply for or against Beckett. (Legenda 2005)

This ground-breaking collection explores the assumptions behind and practices for performance implicit in the manuscripts and playtexts of the medieval and early modern eras, focusing on work which engages with performance-oriented research.

Making Shakespeare is a lively introduction to the major issues of the stage and print history, whilst also raising questions about what a Shakespeare play actually is. Tiffany Stern reveals how London, the theatre, the actors and the way in which the plays were written and printed all affect the 'Shakespeare' that we now read. Concentrating on the instability and fluidity of Shakespeare's texts, her book discusses what happened to a manuscript between its first composition, its performance on stage and its printing, and identifies traces of the production system in the plays we read. She argues that the versions of Shakespeare that have come down to us have inevitably been formed by the contexts from which they emerged; being shaped by, for example, the way actors received and responded to their lines, the props and music used in the theatre, or the continual revision of plays by the playhouses and printers. Allowing a fuller understanding of the texts we read and perform, Making Shakespeare is the perfect introduction to issues of stage and page. A refreshingly clear, accessible read, this book will allow even those with no expert knowledge to begin to contextualize Shakespeare's plays for themselves, in ways both old and new.