This edition first published in 1979. Discussing Shakespeare's sonnets in relation to sonnets by Italian, French and English poets, Kenneth Muir shows how they were influenced by Shakespeare's reading of Sidney, Erasmus and Ovid and discusses their art in terms of construction, sound patterns and imagery. He considers the relationship of the sonnets to Shakespeare's dramatic writing, while stressing the dramatic element in the sonnets themselves. Finally he surveys the changing attitudes to the sonnets during the last three centuries.

First published in 1977. This book ascertains what sources Shakespeare used for the plots of his plays and discusses the use he made of them; and secondly illustrates how his general reading is woven into the texture of his work. Few Elizabethan dramatists took such pains as Shakespeare in the collection of source-material. Frequently the sources were apparently incompatible, but Shakespeare's ability to combine a chronicle play, one or two prose chronicles, two poems and a pastoral romance without any sense of incongruity, was masterly. The plays are examined in approximately chronological order and Shakespeare's developing skill becomes evident.

First published in 1957. This book finds discovers what the sources to Shakespeare's Comedies and Tragedies really were, considers the dramatic reasons for Shakespeare's departure from them and provides many examples of the way in which he made use of his general reading for particular scenes and speeches. Kenneth Muir shows that Shakespeare frequently uses more than one source and sometimes as many as eight.

This edition first published in 1960. This book discusses the extent of Shakespeare's collaboration in the plays of Edward III, The Two Noble Kinsmen, Pericles and the lost Cardenio. It includes chapters on the dramatic value of the plays irrespective of authorship.

First published in 1937. This study argues that the plays of Shakespeare must be studied by comparison with each other and not as separate entities; that they must be related to one another, to the poems and to the Sonnets; that each individual play acquires a deeper significance from its setting in the corpus. Muir and O'Loughlin's critical analysis takes place against the personality of Shakespeare, asserting that that despite all their diversities a single mind and a single hand dominate them and that they are the outcome of one man's critical and emotional reactions to life.

First published in 1972. The emphasis of this book is that each of Shakespeare's tragedies demanded its own individual form and that although certain themes run through most of the tragedies, nearly all critics refrain from the attempt to apply external rules to them. The plays are almost always concerned with one person; they end with the death of the hero; the suffering and calamity that befall him are exceptional; and the tragedies include the medieval idea of the reversal of fortune.

First published in 1980. This collection of essays by the first General Editor of the New Arden Shakespeare brings together the best of Ellis-Fermor's Shespearean criticism, in addition to outstanding essays on Coriolanus and Troilus and Cressida. Collected and edited by Kenneth Muir, the book is prefaced by an appreciation of Ellis-Fermor's work.

First published in 1961. On her death, Professor Ellis-Fermor left behind some uncollected essays and part of a book on Shakespeare the Dramatist. This volume includes the chapters of the unfinished work and three further articles on Shakespeare. It discusses Shakespeare's methods with regard to plot, character, diction, and imagery and it contains comparative analysis of Shakespeare with other dramatists, including Ibsen and Corneille.

Originally published in 1970, this title starts with an introduction, in which Professor Muir distinguishes between the Comedy of Manners and other types of comedy and traces its origins in English and French literature, there are then chapters on the major writers - Etherege, Dryden, Wycherly, Congreve, Vanbrugh, Farquhar - and on Jeremy Collier's attack on the immorality and profaneness of the plays. This is followed by a discussion of the reasons for the decline of comedy in the eighteenth century and an account of its revival by Sheridan and, belatedly, by Wilde. Professor Muir takes issue with a number of recent critics on the dramatic value of the plays.

Originally published in 1984. With selections organised chronologically, this collection presents the best writing on one of Shakespeare's most studied plays. The structure displays the changing responses to the play and includes a wide range of criticism from the likes of Coleridge, Hazlitt, Moulton, Granville-Barker, Orwell, Levin, Stampfer, Gardner and Speaight interspersed with short entries from Keats, Raleigh, Freud and others. The final chapter by the editor elucidates his own thoughts on Lear, building on his commentary in the Introduction which puts the collection in context.

First published in 1937.
This study argues that the plays of Shakespeare must be studied by comparison with each other and not as separate entities; that they must be related to one another, to the poems and to the Sonnets; that each individual play acquires a deeper significance from its setting in the corpus. Muir and O'Loughlin's critical analysis takes place against the personality of Shakespeare, asserting that that despite all their diversities a single mind and a single hand dominate them and that they are the outcome of one man's critical and emotional reactions to life.

First published in 1957. This book finds discovers what the sources to Shakespeare's Comedies and Tragedies really were, considers the dramatic reasons for Shakespeare's departure from them and provides many examples of the way in which he made use of his general reading for particular scenes and speeches. Kenneth Muir shows that Shakespeare frequently uses more than one source and sometimes as many as eight.

This edition first published in 1960. This book discusses the extent of Shakespeare's collaboration in the plays of Edward III, The Two Noble Kinsmen, Pericles and the lost Cardenio. It includes chapters on the dramatic value of the plays irrespective of authorship.

First published in 1961. On her death, Professor Ellis-Fermor left behind some uncollected essays and part of a book on Shakespeare the Dramatist. This volume includes the chapters of the unfinished work and three further articles on Shakespeare. It discusses Shakespeare's methods with regard to plot, character, diction, and imagery and it contains comparative analysis of Shakespeare with other dramatists, including Ibsen and Corneille.

First published in 1977.
This book ascertains what sources Shakespeare used for the plots of his plays and discusses the use he made of them; and secondly illustrates how his general reading is woven into the texture of his work. Few Elizabethan dramatists took such pains as Shakespeare in the collection of source-material. Frequently the sources were apparently incompatible, but Shakespeare's ability to combine a chronicle play, one or two prose chronicles, two poems and a pastoral romance without any sense of incongruity, was masterly. The plays are examined in approximately chronological order and Shakespeare's developing skill becomes evident.

Originally published in 1984. With selections organised chronologically, this collection presents the best writing on one of Shakespeare's most studied plays. The structure displays the changing responses to the play and includes a wide range of criticism from the likes of Coleridge, Hazlitt, Moulton, Granville-Barker, Orwell, Levin, Stampfer, Gardner and Speaight interspersed with short entries from Keats, Raleigh, Freud and others. The final chapter by the editor elucidates his own thoughts on Lear, building on his commentary in the Introduction which puts the collection in context.

First published in 1972. The emphasis of this book is that each of Shakespeare's tragedies demanded its own individual form and that although certain themes run through most of the tragedies, nearly all critics refrain from the attempt to apply external rules to them. The plays are almost always concerned with one person; they end with the death of the hero; the suffering and calamity that befall him are exceptional; and the tragedies include the medieval idea of the reversal of fortune.

This edition first published in 1979. Discussing Shakespeare's sonnets in relation to sonnets by Italian, French and English poets, Kenneth Muir shows how they were influenced by Shakespeare's reading of Sidney, Erasmus and Ovid and discusses their art in terms of construction, sound patterns and imagery. He considers the relationship of the sonnets to Shakespeare's dramatic writing, while stressing the dramatic element in the sonnets themselves. Finally he surveys the changing attitudes to the sonnets during the last three centuries.

First published in 1980. This collection of essays by the first General Editor of the New Arden Shakespeare brings together the best of Ellis-Fermor's Shespearean criticism, in addition to outstanding essays on Coriolanus and Troilus and Cressida. Collected and edited by Kenneth Muir, the book is prefaced by an appreciation of Ellis-Fermor's work.

Horror films have always reflected their audiences' fears and anxieties. In the United States, the 2000s were a decade full of change in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the contested presidential election of 2000, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. These social and political changes, as well as the influences of Japanese horror and New French extremism, had a profound effect on American horror filmmaking during the 2000s. This filmography covers more than 300 horror films released in America from 2000 through 2009, including such popular forms as found footage, torture porn, and remakes. Each entry covers a single film and includes credits, a synopsis, and a lengthy critical commentary. The appendices include common horror conventions, a performer hall of fame, and memorable ad lines.

EBest in ShowE is the first in-depth look at the method behind film director and actor Christopher Guest's madness a and genius. John Kenneth Muir focuses his attention on the acclaimed Guest-directed trilogy of what some call mockumentaries : EWaiting for GuffmanE EBest in ShowE and EA Mighty WindE. In these films Guest has escorted rapt audiences into the purportedly real worlds of a small-town theatrical company dog show competition and folk music festival. Muir also details the events that lead to Rob Reiner's influential and legendary EThis Is Spinal TapE which ERolling StoneE called the best rock and roll movie of all time and in which Guest played the part of guitarist Nigel Tufnel.THMuch of EBest in ShowE exemplifies the unique process by which Guest directs films. He employs a common repertory company improvises scenes often without any rehearsal and does not use any screenplay with dialogue instead following a detailed outline often co-authored with his ace actor/writer Eugene Levy. Company members that have been interviewed for this book include Fred Willard Harry Shearer Bob Balaban and Michael Hitchcock.THGuest's influences a ESaturday Night LiveE ENational LampoonE a as well as his more conventional comedies such as EThe Big PictureE and EAlmost HeroesE are studied. EBest in ShowE is general enough to bring new fans to the table yet detailed enough to satisfy the most in-the-know Guest fan and film student. A complete filmography with Guest's directing acting and writing credits is included as is the appendix You Know You're in a Christopher Guest Film When ... THGuest once commented I am drawn to people who have dreams that are slightly out of reach. Now thanks to John Kenneth Muir the fascinating world of Christopher Guest and company is substantially more within reach.

Admired by Shelley for 'its satisfying completeness', this thought-provoking and skilfully constructed play, which dramatizes the same subject as Shakespeare's Henry VIII , is one of its creator's most outstanding achievements. Understandably, Calderon offers an interpretation of King Henry's divorce from Catherine of Aragon and break with the Church of Rome which is markedly different from that given in Shakespeare's work. Yet, despite his Counter-Reformation allegiances, Calderon brings Henry VIII sympathetically to dramatic life. The schismatic English monarch is portrayed by the Roman Catholic Spanish playwright as a man endowed with moral awareness and with exceptional talent for spiritual leadership, who is, nevertheless, morally and spiritually destroyed by his extraordinary surrender to the forces of physical passion. In this first published translation of the play into English Kenneth Muir and Ann MacKenzie have adhered to methods effectively adopted in their previous books ( Four Comedies by Calderon, and Three Comedies by Calderon). They have composed, almost entirely in blank verse, an accurate yet elegantly poetic version, after the manner of the Elizabethans, but avoiding vocabulary which might seem affected to a modern audience, in order to produce a 'script' that could be performed with success on the stage. The critical edition, prepared by Ann Mackenzie to accompany the translation, is based on the editio princeps (published by Vera Tassis in Calderon's Octava parte de comedias [Madrid, 1684]). Her substantial Introduction and comprehensive Commentary together constitute the most detailed critical evaluation accomplished to date of this key-drama from the Golden Age in Spain. The Introduction, in particular, supplies new evidence as to the date of the play (1627) and the circumstances of its composition, and provides an analysis of Calderon's creative treatment of his historical source-work: Ribadeneyra's Historia eclesiastica del cisma del reino de Inglaterra (1588). Spanish text with facing-page translation, introduction and commentary .