This book compares the theatrical cultures of early modern England and Spain and explores the causes and consequences not just of the remarkable similarities but also of the visible differences between them. An exercise in multi-focal theatre history research, it deploys a wide range of perspectives and evidence with which to recreate the theatrical landscapes of these two countries and thus better understand how the specific conditions of performance actively contributed to the development of each country's dramatic literature. This monograph develops an innovative comparative framework within which to explore the numerous similarities, as well as the notable differences, between early modern Europe's two most prominent commercial theatre cultures. By highlighting the nuances and intricacies that make each theatrical culture unique while never losing sight of the fact that the two belong to the same broader cultural ecosystem, its dual focus should appeal to scholars and students of English and Spanish literature alike, as well as those interested in the broader history of European theatre. Learning from what one 'playground' - that is, the environment and circumstances out of which a dramatic tradition originates - reveals about the other will help solve not only the questions posed above but also others that still await examination. This investigation will be of great interest to students and scholars in theatre history, comparative drama, early modern drama, and performance culture.

This book analyses the epistemological problems that Shakespeare explores in Othello. In particular, it uses the methods of analytic philosophy, especially the work of the later Wittgenstein, to characterize these problems and the play.

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.

This volume explores Shakespeare's interest in pity, an emotion that serves as an important catalyst for action within the plays, even as it generates one of the audience's most common responses to tragic drama in the theater. For Shakespeare, the word "pity" contained a broader range of meaning than it does in modern English, and was often associated with ideas such as mercy, compassion, charity, pardon, and clemency. This cluster of ideas provides Shakespeare's characters with a rich range of possibilities for engaging some of humanity's deepest emotional commitments, in which pity can be seen as a powerful stimulus for fostering social harmony, love, and forgiveness. However, Shakespeare also dramatizes pity's potential for deception, when the appeal to pity is not genuine, and conceals contrary motives of vengeance and cruelty. As Shakespeare's works remain relevant for modern audiences and readers, so too does his dramatization of the powerful ways in which emotions such as pity remain essential to our understanding of our shared humanity and of our awareness of compassion's role in our own private and civic lives.

Challenging conventional thinking about the earliest texts of the play, Martin chooses the Folio version, contributing new evidence about Shakespeare's methods of revision. The introduction discusses the meaning and appeal of the play's action, language, and anti-war themes, and describes its history in the theatre; and the commentary supplies historical information and clarifies meaning.

William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, the incredible comedy about unrequited love, both hilarious and heartbreaking, now presented by the Folger Shakespeare Library with valuable new tools for educators and dynamic new covers. Named for the twelfth night after Christmas, the end of the Christmas season, Twelfth Night plays with love and power. The Countess Olivia, a woman with her own household, attracts Duke Orsino. Two other would-be suitors are her pretentious steward, Malvolio, and Sir Andrew Aguecheek. Onto this scene arrive the twins Viola and Sebastian; previously caught in a shipwreck, each thinks the other has drowned. Viola disguises herself as a male page and enters Orsino's service. Orsino sends her as his envoy to Olivia--only to have Olivia fall in love with the messenger. The play complicates, then wonderfully untangles, these relationships. The authoritative edition of Twelfth Night from The Folger Shakespeare Library, the trusted and widely used Shakespeare series for students and general readers, includes: -The exact text of the printed book for easy cross-reference -Hundreds of hypertext links for instant navigation -Freshly edited text based on the best early printed version of the play -Full explanatory notes conveniently linked to the text of the play -Scene-by-scene plot summaries -A key to the play's famous lines and phrases -An introduction to reading Shakespeare's language -An essay by a leading Shakespeare scholar providing a modern perspective on the play -Fresh images from the Folger Shakespeare Library's vast holdings of rare books -An annotated guide to further reading -An essay by a leading Shakespeare expert

This book compares the theatrical cultures of early modern England and Spain and explores the causes and consequences not just of the remarkable similarities but also of the visible differences between them. An exercise in multi-focal theatre history research, it deploys a wide range of perspectives and evidence with which to recreate the theatrical landscapes of these two countries and thus better understand how the specific conditions of performance actively contributed to the development of each country's dramatic literature. This monograph develops an innovative comparative framework within which to explore the numerous similarities, as well as the notable differences, between early modern Europe's two most prominent commercial theatre cultures. By highlighting the nuances and intricacies that make each theatrical culture unique while never losing sight of the fact that the two belong to the same broader cultural ecosystem, its dual focus should appeal to scholars and students of English and Spanish literature alike, as well as those interested in the broader history of European theatre. Learning from what one 'playground' - that is, the environment and circumstances out of which a dramatic tradition originates - reveals about the other will help solve not only the questions posed above but also others that still await examination. This investigation will be of great interest to students and scholars in theatre history, comparative drama, early modern drama, and performance culture.

The Self-Centred Art is a study of the plays of Ben Jonson and the actors who first performed in them. Jakub Boguszak shows how the idiosyncrasies of Jonson's comic characters were thrown into relief in actors' part-scripts-scrolls containing a single actor's lines and cues-some five hundred of which are reconstructed here from Jonson's seventeen extant plays. Reading Jonson's spectating parts, humorous parts, apprentice parts, and plotting parts, Boguszak argues that the kind of self-absorption which defines so many of Jonson's famous comic creations would have come easily to actors relying on these documents. Jonson's actors would have moreover worked on their cues, studied their speeches, and thought about the information excluded from their parts differently, depending on the type they had to play. Boguszak thus shows that Jonson brilliantly adapted his comedies to the way the actors worked, making the actors' self-centredness serve his art. This book addresses Jonson's dealings with the actors as well as the printers of his plays and supplements the discussion of different types of parts with a colourful range of case studies. In doing so, it presents a new way of understanding not just Ben Jonson, but early modern theatre at large.

This innovative edition offers modernized texts not only of the 1599 quarto but also of the short, or 'bad', quarto of 1597, regarding each as witness to a 'mobile text' which changed in composition as Shakespeare wrote it and which has continued to evolve throughout its richly varied history, both in the theatre and in film, television, opera, and ballet. The more familiar 1599 text is accompanied by a detailed explanatory commentary. The Introduction traces the Romeo and Juliet narrative from its origins in myth through its adaptation in the novella, and shows how Shakespeare's transmutation of the story reflects contemporary concerns with love, death, adolescence, and patriarchism.

Exam board: AQA, Edexcel, Eduqas, WJEC Level & Subject: A Level English Literature First teaching: September 2015 First examination: June 2017 This edition of Hamlet is perfect for A-level students, with the complete play in an accessible format, on-page notes, introduction setting the context, timeline, character and theme indexes. Affordable high quality complete play for Hamlet Demystify vocabulary with notes on the page and concise commentary Set the scene with perfectly pitched introductions that introduce key contexts, concerns and stylistic features, and examine different performances and interpretations Recall plot summaries at the beginning of each scene Support A Level revision and essay writing with theme and character indexes Help with social, historical and literary context with the bespoke timeline of Shakespeare's life and times

HarperCollins is proud to present its new range of best-loved, essential classics. 'Thou and I are too wise to woo peaceably.' One of Shakespeare's most witty and enjoyable comedies, Much Ado About Nothing is a play that explores courtship, romance and marriage through a number of relationships. Most famously, that of the irrepressible Beatrice and Benedick as they trade their wits against one another, criticising the notion of marriage, yet slowly falling in love with one another as they do so.

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.

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.

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.

First published in 1971, Poison, Play and Duel explores the dominant symbols of the language and action of Hamlet. The Ghost first reveals that Claudius murdered his brother by poison, and this act of poisoning is then dramatically presented before the King. The ultimate consequence of the 'poison in jest' performed by the actors is the poisoned 'play' with rapiers between Laertes and Hamlet. This representation of violence, and the vengeful response to violence, creates the moral and the psychological problems of Hamlet. Critics naturally question, and disagree about, the way that Hamlet plays his role in this play because the role of Hamlet is a theatrical device designed to bring all human actions into debate and question. It is hardly surprising that audiences have seen mirrored in Hamlet their own most fundamental and inescapable problems. Nigel Alexander shows how Shakespeare, like Raphael, Titian and other Renaissance artists, developed and adapted the imagery inherited from the Christian and classical past. The battle within the soul, the choice of life, the hunt of passion, the triple face of prudence and the dance of the graces are given dramatic habitation in Hamlet's soliloquies, in the inner-play and in the savage contrast of sexuality between Gertrude and Ophelia. This book will be of interest to students of literature, drama, psychology and philosophy.

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.

This book argues that Shakespeare and various cultures of celebrity have enjoyed a ceaselessly adaptive, symbiotic relationship since the final decade of the sixteenth century, through which each entity has contributed to the vitality and adaptability of the other. In five chapters, Jennifer Holl explores the early modern culture of theatrical celebrity and its resonances in print and performance, especially in Shakespeare's interrogations of this emerging phenomenon in sonnets and histories, before moving on to examine the ways that shifting cultures of stage, film, and digital celebrity have perpetually recreated the Shakespeare, or even the #shakespeare, with whom audiences continue to interact. Situated at an intersection of multiple critical conversations, this book will be of great interest to scholars and graduate students of Shakespeare and Shakespearean appropriations, early modern theater, and celebrity studies.

This innovative work challenges normative binaries in contemporary translation studies and applies frameworks from queer historiography to the discipline in order to explore shifting perceptions of same-sex love and desire in translations and retranslations of William Shakespeare's Sonnets. The book brings together perspectives from poststructuralism, queer theory, and translation history to set the stage for an in-depth exploration of a series of retranslations of the Sonnets from the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The complex and poetic language of the Sonnets, frequently built around era-specific idioms and allusions, has produced a number of different interpretations of the work over the centuries, but questions remain as to how the translation process may omit, retain, or enhance elements of same-sex love in retranslated works across time and geographical borders. In focusing on target cultures which experienced dramatic sociopolitical changes over the course of the twentieth century and comparing retranslations originating from these contexts, Spisiakova finds the ideal backdrop in which to draw parallels between changing developments in power and social structures and shifting translation strategies related to the representation of gender identities and sexual orientations beyond what is perceived to be normative. In so doing, the book advocates for a queer perspective on the study of translation history and encourages questioning traditional boundaries prevalent in the discipline, making this key reading for students and researchers in translation studies, queer theory, and gender studies, as well as those interested in historical developments in Central and Eastern Europe.

The Eco-Self in Early Modern English Literature>/cite> tracks an important shift in early modern conceptions of selfhood, arguing that the period hosted the birth of a new subset of the human, the eco-self, which melds a deeply introspective turn with an abiding sense of humans' embedment in the world. A confluence of cultural factors produced the relevant changes. Of paramount significance was the rapid spread of literacy in England and across Europe: reading transformed the relationship between self and world, retooled moral reasoning, and even altered human anatomy. This book pursues the salutary possibilities, including the ecological benefits, of this redesigned self by advancing fresh readings of texts by William Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe, John Webster, and Margaret Cavendish. The eco-self offers certain refinements to ecological theory by renewing appreciation for the rational, deliberative functions that distinguish humans from other species.

This book provides a thorough analysis of terpsichorean lexis in Renaissance drama. Besides considering not only the Shakespearean canon but also the Bard's contemporaries (e.g., dramatists as John Marston and Ben Jonson among the most refined Renaissance dance aficionados), the originality of this volume is highlighted in both its methodology and structure. As far as methods of analysis are concerned, corpora such as the VEP Early Modern Drama collection and EEBO, and corpus analysis tools such as #LancsBox are used in order to offer the widest range of examples possible from early modern plays and provide co-textual references for each dance. Examples from Renaissance playwrights are fundamental for the analysis of connotative meanings of the dances listed and their performative, poetic and metaphoric role in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century drama. This study will be of great interest to Renaissance researchers, lexicographers and dance historians.

This book presents a ground-breaking, comprehensive study of the modern performance history of plays in the John Fletcher canon, excluding his collaborations with Shakespeare. It examines how seventeen of Fletcher's plays have been interpreted in British productions. In addition, the book offers a consideration of the contexts in which these productions took place, from the early twentieth century 'Elizabethan Revival' to the more politicized theatrical cultures of the 1960s and beyond. Revived with Care opens a window on some of the theatrical developments of the past 135 years, in the context of radical changes in the presentation and reception of early modern drama, while for theatre practitioners it provides ideas and inspiration for exploring little-known but powerful plays in exciting new productions. The book will be of great interest to students, scholars and practitioners working in the field of theatre and performance studies.

Astrology, Almanacs, and the Early Modern English Calendar is a handbook designed to help modern readers unlock the vast cultural, religious, and scientific material contained in early modern calendars and almanacs. It outlines the basic cosmological, astrological, and medical theories that undergirded calendars, traces the medieval evolution of the calendar into its early modern format against the background of the English Reformation, and presents a history of the English almanac in the context of the rise of the printing industry in England. The book includes a primer on deciphering early modern printed almanacs, as well as an illustrated guide to the rich visual and verbal iconography of seasons, months, and days of the week, gathered from material culture, farming manuals, almanacs, and continental prints. As a practical guide to English calendars and the social, mathematical, and scientific practices that inform them, Astrology, Almanacs,and the Early Modern English Calendar is an indispensable tool for historians, cultural critics, and literary scholars working with the primary material of the period, especially those with interests in astrology, popular science, popular print, the book as material artifact, and the history of time-reckoning.

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.