Controversial and sexually charged, The Taming of the Shrew is possibly Shakespeare's first play, and certainly among the most performed. Part of the Macmillan Collector's Library; a series of stunning, clothbound, pocket sized classics with gold foiled edges and ribbon markers. These beautiful books make perfect gifts or a treat for any book lover. This edition is illustrated throughout by Sir John Gilbert, and includes an introduction by Ned Halley. Petruchio's courtship of the unwilling 'shrew' Katherina poses the question: is it an examination of brute male domination or a passionate love story with a powerful moral message? To read it is to gain unique insight into a portrait of a marriage as created by a true master.

The third volume in the re-launched series Shakespeare on Screen is devoted to film versions and adaptations of King Lear. Bringing together an international group of scholars, the chapters provide new insights and perspectives on what constitutes 'Learness' in a range of films, TV productions, translations, free retellings and appropriations from around the world. Taking 'screen' in its broader sense, it also covers digital material such as video archives, internet movies and YouTube videos. The volume features an invaluable film-bibliography and accompanying online resources include additional essays and an expanded version of the film-bibliography.

No Fear Shakespeare gives you the complete text of the "Sonnets "on the left-hand page, side-by-side with an easy-to-understand translation on the right. Each No Fear Shakespeare contains

• The complete text of the original play
• A line-by-line translation that puts Shakespeare into everyday language
• A complete list of characters with descriptions
• Plenty of helpful commentary

Iago's 'I am not what I am' epitomises how Shakespeare's work is rich in philosophy, from issues of deception and moral deviance to those concerning the complex nature of the self, the notions of being and identity, and the possibility or impossibility of self-knowledge and knowledge of others. Shakespeare's plays and poems address subjects including ethics, epistemology, metaphysics, philosophy of mind, and social and political philosophy. They also raise major philosophical questions about the nature of theatre, literature, tragedy, representation and fiction. The Routledge Companion to Shakespeare and Philosophy is the first major guide and reference source to Shakespeare and philosophy. It examines the following important topics: What roles can be played in an approach to Shakespeare by drawing on philosophical frameworks and the work of philosophers? What can philosophical theories of meaning and communication show about the dynamics of Shakespearean interactions and vice versa? How are notions such as political and social obligation, justice, equality, love, agency and the ethics of interpersonal relationships demonstrated in Shakespeare's works? What do the plays and poems invite us to say about the nature of knowledge, belief, doubt, deception and epistemic responsibility? How can the ways in which Shakespeare's characters behave illuminate existential issues concerning meaning, absurdity, death and nothingness? What might Shakespeare's characters and their actions show about the nature of the self, the mind and the identity of individuals? How can Shakespeare's works inform philosophical approaches to notions such as beauty, humour, horror and tragedy? How do Shakespeare's works illuminate philosophical questions about the nature of fiction, the attitudes and expectations involved in engagement with theatre, and the role of acting and actors in creating representations? The Routledge Companion to Shakespeare and Philosophy is essential reading for students and researchers in aesthetics, philosophy of literature and philosophy of theatre, as well as those exploring Shakespeare in disciplines such as literature and theatre and drama studies. It is also relevant reading for those in areas of philosophy such as ethics, epistemology and philosophy of language.

"King Henry VIII" has one of the fullest theatrical histories of any play in the Shakespeare canon, yet has been consistently misrepresented, both in performance and in criticism. This edition offers a new perspective on this ironic, multi-layered, collaborative play, revealing it as a complex meditation on the progress of Reformation which sees English life since Henry VIII's day as a series of bewildering changes in national and personal allegiance and represents "history" as the product of varied and contradictory testimony. McMullan makes a powerful claim for the rehabilitation of "Henry VIII," providing the fullest performance history of any edition to date and reading the work not as a marginal "late" Shakespeare play but as a play which is paradigmatic of the achievement of Renaissance drama as a whole. His introduction emphasizes truth and conscience and the dramatic devices used to portray these themes. This edition's appendices elucidate the chronology for the events portrayed in "King Henry VIII" and other source works. A scene from Beaumont and Fletcher's "A Maid's Tragedy," comments on music, a doubling chart, and other reference information are also included. The Arden Shakespeare has developed a reputation as the pre-eminent critical edition of Shakespeare for its exceptional scholarship, reflected in the thoroughness of each volume. An introduction comprehensively contextualizes the play, chronicling the history and culture that surrounded and influenced Shakespeare at the time of its writing and performance, and closely surveying critical approaches to the work. Detailed appendices address problems like dating and casting, and analyze the differing Quarto and Folio sources. A full commentary by one or more of the play's foremost contemporary scholars illuminates the text, glossing unfamiliar terms and drawing from an abundance of research and expertise to explain allusions and significant background information. Highly informative and accessible, Arden offers the fullest experience of Shakespeare available to a reader.
Table of Contents
List of IllustrationsGeneral Editors' PrefacePreface INTRODUCTIONAuthenticities: performance history Date and early performances Performances 1660-1916 Performances 1916-2000All is true: cultural history Truth and topicality Royal reputations The conscience of the King Truth and temperance Truth and textuality Truth and tragicomedy The character of the Queen Hidden reformations Truth and topicality: codaOriginals: textual history Text and modernization Resources Sources Analogues Collaboration KING HENRY VIII (ALL IS TRUE) Longer notes APPENDICES1. Contextual chronology for the events of "Henry VIII"2. Comparative chronology (1603-13) for plays in the Fletcher and Shakespeare canons3. Attribution and composition4. The Maid's Tragedy5. Uncollected sources/analogues6. Music7 Doubling chart Abbreviations and references Abbreviations used in notes Works in the Shakespeare canon Works in the Fletcher canon Editions of Shakespeare collated Other works Modern productions cited Film/television productions cited Index

David Scott Kastan lucidly explores the remarkable richness and the ambitious design of King Henry IV Part 1 and shows how these complicate any easy sense of what kind of play it is. Conventionally regarded as a history play, much of it is in fact conspicuously invented fiction, and Kastan argues that the non-historical, comic plot does not simply parody the historical action but by its existence raises questions about the very nature of history. The full and engaging introduction devotes extensive discussion to the playas language, indicating how its insistent economic vocabulary provides texture for the social concerns of the play and focuses attention on the central relationship between value and political authority.

Theatre Design involves everything seen on stage: not only scenery but costumes, wigs, makeup, properties, lighting, sound, even the shape and material of the stage itself. Designers' Shakespeare presents and analyses the work of a half-dozen leading practitioners of this specialist art. By focusing specifically on their Shakespearean work, it also offers a fresh, exciting perspective on some of the best-known drama of all time. Shakespeare's plays offer an unusual range of opportunities to designers. As they were written for a theatre which gave no opportunity for scenic support or embellishment, designers are freed from any compulsion to imitate original practices. This has resulted in the extraordinarily diverse range of works presented in this volume, which considers among others the work of Josef Svoboda, Karl-Ernst Herrmann, Ming Cho Lee, Alison Chitty, Robert Wilson, Societas Raffaello Sanzio, Filter Theatre, Catherine Zuber, John Bury , Christopher Morley, Ralph Koltai and Sean Kenny. Designers' Shakespeare joins Actors' Shakespeare and Directors' Shakespeare as essential reading for lovers of Shakespeare from theatre-goers and students to directors and theatre designers.

Shakespeare Survey is a yearbook of Shakespeare studies and productions. Since 1948, the Survey has published the best international scholarship in English and many of its essays have become classics of Shakespeare criticism. Each volume is devoted to a theme, or play, or group of plays; each also contains a section of reviews of that year's textual and critical studies and of the year's major British performances. The theme for Volume 67 is 'Shakespeare's Collaborative Work'. The complete set of Survey volumes is also available online at http://www.cambridge.org/online/shakespearesurvey. This fully searchable resource enables users to browse by author, essay and volume, search by play, theme and topic, and save and bookmark their results.

For most of the 1590s, the Admiral's Men were the main competitors of Shakespeare's company in the London theatres. Not only did they stage old plays by dramatists such as Christopher Marlowe and Thomas Kyd: their playwrights invented the genres of humours comedy (with An Humorous Day's Mirth) and city comedy (with Englishmen for My Money), while other new plays such as A Knack to Know an Honest Man and The Downfall of Robert, Earl of Huntingdon were important influences on Shakespeare. This is the first book to read the Admiral's repertory against Shakespeare's plays of the 1590s, showing both how Shakespeare drew on their innovations and how his plays influenced Admiral's dramatists in turn. Shedding new light on well-known plays and offering detailed analysis of less familiar ones, it offers a fresh perspective on the dramatic culture of the 1590s.

Hunger and appetite permeate Renaissance theatre, with servants, soldiers, courtiers and misers all defined with striking regularity through their relation to food. Demonstrating the profound ongoing relevance of Marxist literary theory, Hunger, Appetite and the Politics of the Renaissance Stage highlights the decisive role of these drives in the complex politics of early modern drama. Plenty and excess were thematically inseparable from scarcity and want for contemporary audiences, such that hunger and appetite together acquired a unique significance as both subject and medium of political debate. Focusing critical attention on the relationship between cultural texts and the material base of society, Matthew Williamson reveals the close connections between how these drives were represented and the underlying socioeconomic changes of the period. At the same time, he shows how hunger and appetite provided the theatres with a means of conceptualising these changes and interrogating the forces that motivated them.

Playwright Migdalia Cruz breathes new life into Richard III. Nuyorican playwright Migdalia Cruz unpacks and repositions Shakespeare's Richard III for a twenty-first-century audience. She presents a contemporary English verse translation, faithfully keeping the poetry, the puns, and the politics of the play intact, with a rigorous and in-depth examination of Richard III-the man, the king, the outsider-who is still the only English king to have died in battle. In the Wars of the Roses, his Catholic belief in his country led to his slaughter at Bosworth's Field by his Protestant rivals. In reimagining this text, Cruz emphasizes Richard III's outsider status-exacerbated by his severe scoliosis, which twisted his spine-by punctuating the text with punk music from 1970s London. Cruz's Richard is no one's fool or lackey. He is a new kind of monarch, whose dark sense of humor and deep sense of purpose leads his charge against the society which never fully accepted him because he looked different. This translation was written as part of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival's Play On! project, which commissioned new translations of thirty-nine Shakespeare plays. These translations present the work of "The Bard" in language accessible to modern audiences while never losing the beauty of Shakespeare's verse. These volumes make these works available for the first time in print-a new First Folio for a new era.

The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare and Race shows teachers and students how and why Shakespeare and race are inseparable. Moving well beyond Othello, the collection invites the reader to understand racialized discourses, rhetoric, and performances in all of Shakespeare's plays, including the comedies and histories. Race is presented through an intersectional approach with chapters that focus on the concepts of sexuality, lineage, nationality, and globalization. The collection helps students to grapple with the unique role performance plays in constructions of race by Shakespeare (and in Shakespearean performances), considering both historical and contemporary actors and directors. The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare and Race will be the first book that truly frames Shakespeare studies and early modern race studies for a non-specialist, student audience.

Sparkling with the witty dialogue between Beatrice and Benedicts, Much Ado About Nothing is one of Shakespeare's most enjoyable and theatrically successful comedies.
This edition offers a newly edited text and an exceptionally helpful and critically aware introduction. Paying particular attention to analysis of the play's minor characters, Sheldon P Zitner discusses Shakespeare's transformation of his source material. He rethinks the attitudes to gender relations that underlie the comedy and determine its view of marriage.
About the Series: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the broadest spectrum of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, voluminous notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Allowing for the play's openness to reinterpretation by successive generations of readers and performers, Zitner provides a socially analytic stage history, advancing new views for the actor as much as for the critic.

Othello, the general of the Venetian army, holds much power and influence but becomes the target of an insidious plot to steal his coveted position. He is overcome with paranoia and enthralled with rumors of his wife's potential infidelity. Othello has fallen in love with a senator's daughter, Desdemona, and the two secretly marry. Their partnership generates shock and confusion as Desdemona was also loved by Roderigo, who'd already asked for her hand. Othello's ensign, Iago, is envious of the general and is spurned when he promotes the young Cassio to a higher position. This marks the beginning of a plot in which Iago plans to destroy Othello's personal and professional life. He attacks his marriage by stoking the flames of jealousy, insinuating Desdemona's infidelity. This leads to a violent confrontation with a morbid outcome. Othello is one of William Shakespeare's most well-known plays. It tackles multiple topics including race, gender, politics and revenge. It's a gripping drama that details the dangers of greed, envy and their inescapable consequences. With an eye-catching new cover, and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Othello is both modern and readable.

Julius Caesar was a general and stateman whose favor among the Roman people was viewed as a threat and source of conflict with other consuls. He was eventually targeted by a group of conspirators who sought to neutralize his power and influence. After defeating his longtime enemy, Pompey, Caesar is celebrated upon his return home. Roman citizens are enamored by the general, while politicians are concerned with his growing accomplishments. They fear Caesar will become driven by ambition, coveting a position as the king of Rome. A group of conspirators, including the reluctant Brutus, create a plot to assassinate Caesar, effectively ending his rise to power. The action sparks civil unrest, leading to the discovery of the participants true motivations. William Shakespeare's interpretation of Julius Caesar's story is arguably the most famous version. It's been adapted across various mediums including film and television. The story is ripe with deception and betrayal but also guilt and retribution. With an eye-catching new cover, and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Julius Caesar is both modern and readable.

The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare on Screen provides a lively guide to film and television productions adapted from Shakespeare's plays. Offering an essential resource for students of Shakespeare, the companion considers topics such as the early history of Shakespeare films, the development of 'live' broadcasts from theatre to cinema, the influence of promotion and marketing, and the range of versions available in 'world cinema'. Chapters on the contexts, genres and critical issues of Shakespeare on screen offer a diverse range of close analyses, from 'Classical Hollywood' films to the BBC's Hollow Crown series. The companion also features sections on the work of individual directors Orson Welles, Akira Kurosawa, Franco Zeffirelli, Kenneth Branagh, and Vishal Bhardwaj, and is supplemented by a guide to further reading and a filmography.

Macbeth, a successful solider, is visited by Three Witches who claim he will soon become king, but his ascension may be thwarted by other parties. Macbeth is driven by ambition and takes drastic steps to secure his place on the throne. After a successful military career in the Scottish army, Macbeth receives life-changing news. Three Witches deliver a prophesy stating that he will be the country's future king. He shares this information with his wife, Lady Macbeth, who is intrigued by his fate. The duo is concerned about potential threats to his position including the king's son Malcolm and the army captain, Banquo. Macbeth becomes obsessed with the prophesy, committing acts of violence towards the current King Duncan, his heir and the captain. As Macbeth's desire for power grows, so does the bloodshed across the kingdom. Macbeth is a haunting prophecy that hinges on the moral decisions of its protagonist. This captivating story highlights the many flaws of man including ego, greed and fear. It's a brilliant character-driven piece that's one of Shakespeare's most adapted and performed plays. With an eye-catching new cover, and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Macbeth is both modern and readable.

In a race against the clock, identical twin brothers unexpectedly trade places, which threatens one brother's marriage, the other's sanity and both of their freedom. It's a slapstick comedy full of hijinks and convoluted conflicts. When their family is shipwrecked, two identical twin boys are separated and forced to grow up with a single parent. One went with their mother, while the other was raised by their father. Years later, the brothers, both named Antipholus, unexpectedly swap lives when one attempts to search for the other. Antipholus of Syracuse is mistaken for Antipholus of Ephesus, who is married to a slightly overbearing wife, Adriana. Despite his reservations, Adriana brings Antipholus of Syracuse to their home where his strange behavior leads to a major debacle. The Comedy of Errors delivers on its descriptive title. It's a multilayered story filled with tongue twisters and a complex plot. The clever writing and captivating characters make this a timeless farce. With an eye-catching new cover, and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of The Comedy of Errors is both modern and readable.

Domestic tragedy was an innovative genre, suggesting that the lives and sufferings of ordinary people were worthy of the dramatic scope of tragedy. In this compelling study, Whipday revises the narrative of Shakespeare's plays to show how this genre, together with neglected pamphlets, ballads, and other forms of 'cheap print' about domestic violence, informed some of Shakespeare's greatest works. Providing a significant reappraisal of Hamlet, Othello, and Macbeth, the book argues that domesticity is central to these plays: they stage how societal and familial pressures shape individual agency; how the integrity of the house is associated with the body of the housewife; and how household transgressions render the home permeable. Whipday demonstrates that Shakespeare not only appropriated constructions of the domestic from domestic tragedies, but that he transformed the genre, using heightened language, foreign settings, and elite spheres to stage familiar domestic worlds.

This volume features a wide range of plays that reimagine Shakespeare works from Borderlands perspectives. For several decades, Chicanx and Indigenous theatermakers have been repurposing Shakespeare's plays to reflect the histories and lived realities of the US-Mexico Borderlands and to create space to tell stories of and for La Frontera. Celebrating this rich tradition, The Bard in the Borderlands: An Anthology of Shakespeare Appropriations en La Frontera brings a wide range of Borderlands Shakespeare plays together for the first time in a multi-volume open-access scholarly edition. This anthology celebrates the dynamic, multilingual reworking of canon and place that defines Borderlands Shakespeare, and it situates these geographically and temporally diverse plays within the robust study of Shakespeare's global afterlives. The editors offer a critical framework for understanding the artistic and political traditions that shape these plays and the place of Shakespeare within the multilayered colonial histories of the region. Borderlands Shakespeare plays, they contend, do not simply reproduce Shakespeare in new contexts but rather use his work in innovative ways to negotiate colonial power and to envision socially just futures.

A Midsummer Night's Dream is perhaps the best loved of Shakepeare's plays. It brings together aristocrats, workers, and fairies in a wood outside Athens, and from there the enchantment begins. Simple and engaging on the surface, it is none the less a highly original and sophisticated work, remarkable for both its literary and its theatrical mastery. It is one of the very few of Shakespeare's plays which do not draw on narrative sources, which suggests that it reflects his deepest imaginative concerns to an unusual degree. In his introduction Peter Holland pays particular attention to dreams and dreamers, and to Shakespeare's construction of a world of night and shadows. Both here and in his commentary he explores the play's extensive performance history to illustrate the wide range of interpretations of which it is capable. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.