This is the first fully annotated modern-spelling edition of King Henry VIII to appear for over a decade and includes up-to-date scholarship on all aspects of the play including its stage history. The editor accepts the view that the play is a collaboration between Shakespeare and Fletcher. Unique to this edition is the frequent reference to Cavendish's biography of Wolsey, neglected in earlier editions.

What was Shakespeare's attitude to Semitism? The Introduction to this edition of The Merchant of Venice opens by addressing this vital issue raised by the play, and goes on to study the sources, background, and date, includuing a discussion of Sigmund Freud's essay on 'The Three Caskets'. Professor Halio interprets the play's contradictions, inconsistencies, and complementarities, especially as these relate to the overarching theme of bonds and bondage. A survey of the play's stage history ranges from discussions of its early staging to important twentieth-century productions and performances outside England, particularly in Israel. The text, based on a fresh examination of the early editions, is presented in modernized spelling and punctuation. Unfailingly lucid and helpful, this is an ideal edition for students, actors, and the general reader. 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.

This edition of Shakespeare's King Lear is based on the first (1608) quarto and represents a significantly different version from that published in the folio of 1623, which forms the basis of the standard New Cambridge Shakespeare edition. Each has numerous unique passages and hundreds of variant readings, creating differences that affect the structure, characterization and overall impact of the play. This volume contains a substantial introduction, the text of the first quarto, a collation of variant readings and an appendix of passages unique to the Folio.

The twelve essays were written not simply to honor Stephen Booth, but to further the study of Shakespeare. Booth has, for over forty years, proposed a distinct understanding of how Shakespeare s plays and poems work upon us and a unique and rigorous way of reading them. The essays here reflect his insights and method and are meant both to recognize his monumental achievements as a critic and to suggest the enduring value of his work to Shakespeare scholarship. The first essay explains the method and the advantages of Booth s approach to Shakespeare. The next two on Romeo and Juliet and The Rape of Lucrece demonstrate Booth s way of reading Shakespeare. The next four develop Booth s contention that Shakespeare often sets audiences to watch or, rather, to try to watch a play other than the one he shows them. The next two essays look at textual problems from Booth s perspective and explore the challenges editors face in their attempts to establish authentic texts for modern readers. The last three essays focus on teaching and include a description of Stephen Booth s teaching practices and his own renown explanation, through a commentary on Philip D. Eastman s Go, Dog. Go , of the way poetry works upon its readers and the reasons they value it highly. The book concludes with a bibliography of Stephen Booth s work."