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Shakespeare's Comedies: All That Matters (Atm Ser.)
by Mike ScottIn Shakespeare's Comedies: All That Matters, Mike Scott explores and explains the secrets that have made Shakespeare's comedies so enduring that they continue to be performed, watched and studied by millions of people every year. Professor Scott focuses in turn on he Comedy of Errors, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Twelfth Night, As You Like It and The Merchant of Venice and builds an argument based around Shakepeare's use of language to prompt the audience's imagination and thought. This original little book, and its companion volume Shakespeare's Tragedies, fills a major gap in the market for a book which will enable readers to understand a Shakesperean play in the context of its ouevre. This accessible and readable book will appeal both to students and general readers, giving a fascinating intoruduction to Shakespeare's comedies - and what matters most about them.
Shakespeare's Comedies
by William ShakespeareA collection containing Alls Well that Ends Well, As You Like It, The Comedy of Errors, Love's Labour's Lost, Measure for Measure, The merry Wives of Windosr, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Much Ado About Nothing, The Taming of the Shrew, The Tempest, Twelfth Night, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Winter's Tale, Pericles, and The Two Noble Kinsmen.
Shakespeare's Comedies: All That Matters (All That Matters)
by Michael ScottIn Shakespeare's Comedies: All That Matters, Mike Scott explores and explains the secrets that have made Shakespeare's comedies so enduring that they continue to be performed, watched and studied by millions of people every year. Professor Scott focuses in turn on The Comedy of Errors, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Twelfth Night, As You Like It and The Merchant of Venice and builds an argument based around Shakepeare's use of language to prompt the audience's imagination and thought. This original little book, and its companion volume Shakespeare's Tragedies, fills a major gap in the market for a book which will enable readers to understand a Shakesperean play in the context of its ouevre.This accessible and readable book will appeal both to students and general readers, giving a fascinating intoruduction to Shakespeare's comedies - and what matters most about them."'Comedy is a serious business' says Michael Scott - it is, and his splendid short book takes it very seriously as it should, but remains lively and wonderfully readable withall." Dr Drummond Bone, Master of Balliol College, Oxford"An authoritative and expert overview of the entire fields of Shakespearean Comedy and Tragedy combined with persuasive and eminently accessible close readings of particular plays. Michael Scott brings to the task and infectious enthusiasm and deep knowledge of their theatrical, literary and cultural significance and he provides a clear and compelling endorsement of their continued relevance. These books provide an exemplary introduction to the complex world of Shakespearean drama, full of insights, observations, and ideas, all of which are brought firmly to bear on the abiding question of what these plays mean for us today." John Drakakis, Professor of English at the University of Stirling"Everything is so clear - no academic jargon, for instance. With Shakespeare's Comedies, even the most critical scholars can learn something... as well as students at the start of their encounter with Shakespeare and the same for regular theatre goers. To address all three at once... has to be an accomplishment... from the Introduction to the Conclusion... to the last sentence: (the) reader will readily grasp why this series of books is called All That Matters." Professor M.L.Wine, Evanston, USA
Shakespeare's Comedies of Love
by Karen BamfordBorrowing its title from renowned scholar Alexander Leggatt's landmark 1974 study, Shakespeare's Comedies of Love is a tribute to a critic who has shaped the way the world understands Shakespeare and his comedies. To help celebrate his distinguished career as a teacher and scholar, this collection of essays presents a wide range of new work on the Bard's comedies. The contributors cover diverse areas of inquiry, including the use of the comedies as a source of women's empowerment in nineteenth-century America; civic drama in Elizabethan London; male anxiety about women in the comedies; anti-Semitism in The Merchant of Venice; as well as some key productions of Shakespeare's comedies. Rich in detail and broad in scope, Shakespeare's Comedies of Love is a celebration of Leggatt's distinguished career, and an enduring collection of work on the world's most famous writer.
Shakespeare's Comedy of Love
by Alexander LeggattFirst published in 1987. This study removes some of the critical puzzles that Shakespeare's comedies of love have posed in the past. The author shows that what distinguishes the comedies is not their similarity but their variety - the way in which each play is a new combination of essentially similar ingredients, so that, for example, the boy/girl changes in The Merchant of Venice are seen to have a quite different significance from those in As You Like It.
Shakespeare's Complete Works
by William ShakespeareA balanced editorial approach, a highly respected editor, and comprehensive glosses, footnotes, and historical and cultural essays make this the most reader-friendly introduction to Shakespeare available today. The seventh edition of this comprehensive anthology addresses the two key issues confronted by readers approaching Shakespeare today: a lack of knowledge about the historical period and difficulty with the language of Shakespeare's plays. A richly illustrated general introduction offers insight into Shakespeare's England and background on the literary and cultural contexts in which Shakespeare wrote and produced plays. Each play is introduced by a descriptive essay designed to help the reader appreciate the cultural contexts and interpretive issues raised by the play -- without dictating their interpretations. Thoroughly revised and updated notes and glosses provide additional support to understanding the language of Shakespeare's time.
Shakespeare’s Contested Nations: Race, Gender, and Multicultural Britain in Performances of the History Plays (Routledge Advances in Theatre & Performance Studies)
by L. Monique PittmanShakespeare’s Contested Nations argues that performances of Shakespearean history at British institutional venues between 2000 and 2016 manifest a post-imperial nostalgia that fails to tell the nation’s story in ways that account for the agential impact of women and people of color, thus foreclosing promising opportunities to re-examine the nation’s multicultural past, present, and future in more intentional, self-critical, and truly progressive ways. A cluster of interconnected stage and televisual performances and adaptations of the history play canon illustrate the function that Shakespeare’s narratives of incipient "British" identities fulfill for the postcolonial United Kingdom. The book analyzes treatments of the plays in a range of styles—staged performances directed by Michael Boyd with the Royal Shakespeare Company (2000–2001) and Nicholas Hytner at the National Theatre (2003, 2005), the BBC’s Hollow Crown series (2012, 2016), the RSC and BBC adaptations of Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies (2013, 2015), and a contemporary reinterpretation of the canon, Mike Bartlett’s King Charles III (2014, 2017). This book will be of great interest to scholars and students of Shakespeare, theatre, and politics.
Shakespeare's Curse
by Bjoern QuiringConceptualizing the curse as the representation of a foundational, mythical violence that is embedded within juridical discourse, Shakespeare’s Curse pursues a reading of Richard III, King John, and King Lear in order to analyse the persistence of imprecations in the discourses of modernity. Shakespeare wrote during a period that was transformative in the development of juridical thinking. However, taking up the relationship between theatre, theology and law, Bjoern Quiring argues that the curse was not eliminated from legal discourses during this modernization of jurisprudence; rather, it persisted and to this day continues to haunt numerous speech acts. Drawing on the work of Derrida, Lacan, Walter Benjamin and Giorgio Agamben, among others, Quiring analyses the performativity of the curse, and tracks its power through the juristic themes that are pursued within Shakespeare’s plays – such as sovereignty, legitimacy, succession, obligation, exception, and natural law. Thus, this book provides an original and important insight into early modern legal developments, as well as a fresh perspective on some of Shakespeare’s best-known works. A fascinating interdisciplinary study, this book will interest students and scholars of Law, Literature, and History.
Shakespeare's Curse: The Aporias of Ritual Exclusion in Early Modern Royal Drama
by Björn QuiringConceptualizing the curse as the representation of a foundational, mythical violence that is embedded within juridical discourse, Shakespeare’s Curse:The Aporias of Ritual Exclusion in Early Modern Royal Drama pursues a reading of Richard III, King John, and King Lear in order to analyse the persistence of imprecations in the discourses of modernity. Shakespeare wrote during a period that was transformative in the development of juridical thinking. However, taking up the relationship between theater, theology and law, Björn Quiring argues that the curse was not eliminated from legal discourses during this modernization of jurisprudence; rather, it persisted and to this day continues to haunt numerous speech acts. Drawing on the work of Derrida, Lacan, Walter Benjamin and Giorgio Agamben, among others, Quiring analyses the performativity of the curse, and tracks its power through the juristic themes that are pursued within Shakespeare’s plays – such as sovereignty, legitimacy, succession, obligation, exception, and natural law. Thus, this book provides an original and important insight into early modern legal developments, as well as a fresh perspective on some of Shakespeare’s best known works. A fascinating interdisciplinary study, this book will interest students and scholars of Law, Literature, and History.
Shakespeare's Dog
by Rick ChafeLiving in a wild world full of unpredictable creatures—beasts, beggars, witch hunters, and actors—William's family must find a way to cope with their changing Elizabethan world. With four legs, a keen eye, and a sharp tongue, Hooker, Shakespeare's dog, tells the story of how the Stratford rogue became the world's most famous playwright. Based on the novel by Leon Rooke, Shakespeare's Dog tells the tale of the Bard's life from a unique perspective, showing that in the Elizabethan era, lust, love, and lives collide, and it is anyone's guess who is top dog.
Shakespeare's Domestic Economies: Gender and Property in Early Modern England
by Natasha KordaShakespeare's Domestic Economies explores representations of female subjectivity in Shakespearean drama from a refreshingly new perspective, situating The Taming of the Shrew, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Othello, and Measure for Measure in relation to early modern England's nascent consumer culture and competing conceptions of property. Drawing evidence from legal documents, economic treatises, domestic manuals, marriage sermons, household inventories, and wills to explore the realities and dramatic representations of women's domestic roles, Natasha Korda departs from traditional accounts of the commodification of women, which maintain that throughout history women have been "trafficked" as passive objects of exchange between men.In the early modern period, Korda demonstrates, as newly available market goods began to infiltrate households at every level of society, women emerged as never before as the "keepers" of household properties. With the rise of consumer culture, she contends, the housewife's managerial function assumed a new form, becoming increasingly centered around caring for the objects of everyday life—objects she was charged with keeping as if they were her own, in spite of the legal strictures governing women's property rights. Korda deftly shows how their positions in a complex and changing social formation allowed women to exert considerable control within the household domain, and in some areas to thwart the rule of fathers and husbands.
Shakespeare's Double Plays: Dramatic Economy On The Early Modern Stage
by Brett GamboaIn the first comprehensive study of how Shakespeare designed his plays to suit his playing company, Brett Gamboa demonstrates how Shakespeare turned his limitations to creative advantage, and how doubling roles suited his unique sense of the dramatic. By attending closely to their dramaturgical structures, Gamboa analyses casting requirements for the plays Shakespeare wrote for the company between 1594 and 1610, and describes how using the embedded casting patterns can enhance their thematic and theatrical potential. Drawing on historical records, dramatic theory, and contemporary performance this innovative work questions received ideas about early modern staging and provides scholars and contemporary theatre practitioners with a valuable guide to understanding how casting can help facilitate audience engagement. Supported by an appendix of speculative doubling charts for plays, illustrations, and online resources, this is a major contribution to the understanding of Shakespeare's dramatic craft.
Shakespeare's Drama
by Una Ellis-FermorFirst 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.
Shakespeare's Dramatic Art: Collected Essays
by Wolfgang ClemenFirst published in 1972. Studying Shakespeare's 'art of preparation', this book illustrates the relationship between the techniques of preparation and the structure and theme of the plays. Other essays cover Shakespeare's use of the messenger's report, his handling of the theme of appearance and reality and the basic characteristics of Shakespearian drama.
Shakespeare's Dramatic Heritage: Collected Studies in Mediaeval, Tudor and Shakespearean Drama
by Glynne WickhamShakespeare's Dramatic Heritage shows that the drama of Elizabethan and Jacobean England is deeply indebted to the religious drama of the Middle Ages and represents a climax, in secular guise, to mediaeval experiment and achievement rather than a new beginning. This is fully examined in terms of dramatic literature as well as in terms of theatres, stages and production conventions. The plays studied include: Richard II, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Hamlet, Macbeth, Coriolanus, The Winter's Tale and Marlowe's King Edward II.
Shakespeare's Dramatic Structures
by Anthony BrennanFirst published in 1986. The focus of this book is the dramatic strategies of scenic repetition and character separation. The author traces the way in which Shakesperare often presents recurring gestures, dramatic interactions, and complex scenic structures at widely separated intervals in a play - thereby providing an internal system of cross-reference for an audience. He also examines the way in which Shakespeare increases the dramatic voltage in central relationships by limiting the access key characters have to each other on stage. These strategies, it is argued, are indelible marks of Shakespeare's craftsmanship which survive all attempts to obliterate it in many modern productions.
Shakespeare's Dramatic Transactions
by Michael E. MooneyShakespeare's Dramatic Transactions uses conventions of performance criticism--staging and theatrical presentation--to analyze seven major Shakespearean tragedies: Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra, Richard II, and Richard III. As scholars and readers increasingly question the theoretical models used to describe the concepts of "mimesis" and "representation," this book describes how the actor's stage presentation affects the actor's representational role and the ways in which viewers experience Shakespearean tragedy. Michael Mooney draws on the work of East German critic Robert Weimann and his concept of figurenposition--the correlation between an actor's stage location and the speech, action, and stylization associated with that position--to understand the actor/stage location relationship in Shakespeare's plays. In his examination of the original staging of Shakespeare's tragedies, Mooney looks at the traditional interplay between a downstage "place" and upstage "location" to describe the difference between non-illusionistic action (often staged near the audience) and the illusionistic, localized action that characterizes mimetic art. The innovative and insightful approach of Shakespeare's Dramatic Transactions brings together the techniques of performance criticism and the traditional literary study of Shakespearean tragedy. In showing how the distinctions of stage location illuminate the interaction among language, representation, Mooney's compelling argument enhances our understanding of Shakespeare and the theater.
Shakespeare's Ear: Dark, Strange, and Fascinating Tales from the World of Theater
by Tim RaybornShakespeare’s Ear presents dark and sometimes funny pieces of fact and folklore that bedevil the mostly unknown history of theater. All manner of skullduggery, from revenge to murder, from affairs to persecution, proves that the drama off-stage was just as intense as any portrayed on it. The stories include those of: An ancient Greek writer of tragedies who dies when an eagle drops a tortoise on his head. A sixteenth-century English playwright who lives a double life as a spy and perishes horribly, stabbed above the eye. A small Parisian theater where grisly horrors unfold on stage. The gold earring that Shakespeare wears in the Chandos portrait, and its connections to bohemians and pirates of the time. Journey back to see theatrical shenanigans from the ancient Near East, explore the violent plays of ancient Greece and Rome, revel in the Elizabethan and Jacobean golden age of blood-thirsty drama, delight in the zany and subversive antics of the Commedia dell’arte, and tremble at ghostly incursions into playhouses. Here you will find many fine examples of playwrights, actors, and audiences alike being horrible to each other over the centuries.
Shakespeare's Early Tragedies
by Nicholas BrookeFirst published in 1968. Shakespeare's Early Tragedies contains studies of six plays: Titus Andronicus, Richard III, Romeo and Juliet, Richard II, Julius Caesar and Hamlet. The emphasis is on the variety of the plays, and the themes, a variety which has been too often obscured by the belief in a single 'tragic experience'. The kind of experience the plays create and their quality as dramatic works for the stage are also examined. These essays develop an understanding of Shakespeare's use of the stage picture in relation to the emblematic imagery of Elizabethan poetry.
Shakespeare's Face
by Stephanie NolenOn May 11, 2001, Globe and Mail reporter Stephanie Nolen announced a stunning discovery to the world: an attractive portrait held by an Ontario family for twelve generations, which may well be the only known portrait of Shakespeare painted during his lifetime. Shakespeare's Face is the biography of a portrait -- a literary mystery story -- and the furious debate that has ensued since its discovery.A slip of paper affixed to the back proclaims "Shakespere. This likeness taken 1603, Age at that time 39 ys." But is it really Shakespeare who peers at us from the small oil on wood painting? The twinkling eyes, reddish hair, and green jacket are not in keeping with the duller, traditional images of the bard. But they are more suggestive of the humorous and humane man who wrote the greatest plays in the English language.Shakespeare's Face tells the riveting story of how the painting came to reside in the home of a retired engineer in a mid-sized Ontario town. The painting is reputed to be by John Sanders of Worcester, England. As a retirement project, the engineer, whose grandmother kept the family treasure under her bed, embarked on authenticating the portrait: the forensic analyses that followed have proven it without doubt to the period.In a remarkable publishing coup, Knopf Canada has gathered around Stephanie Nolen's story a group of the world's leading Shakespeare scholars and art and cultural historians to delve into one of the most fascinating literary mysteries of our times: "Is this the face of genius?"Excerpt from Chapter 1 of Shakespeare's Face by Stephanie NolenBy the late afternoon I was beginning to go a little cross-eyed. I had examined countless documents and read the test results from the painting's painstaking forensic analysis. I now had everything I needed to write my story -- except for one crucial item. "Is he here?" I asked, almost in a whisper....The owner laid the package carefully on the cluttered table. He gently pulled back the kraft paper wrapping, underneath which was a layer of bubble wrap. Then he peeled back this second layer to reveal his treasure.I was caught off-guard by how small the portrait was -- and how vivid. The colours in the paint seemed too rich to be 400 years old. Except for the hairline cracks in the varnish, the face could have been painted yesterday. And there was nothing austere or haughty about it, nothing of the great man being painted for posterity. It was a rogue's face, a charmer's face that looked back at me with a tolerant, mischievous slightly world-weary air....It was painted on two pieces of solid board so expertly joined that the seam was barely visible. A date, "Ano 1603", was painted in small red letters in the top right hand corner. The right side had been nibbled by woodworms.... I stood and gazed, quelling an instinctive urge to pick the portrait up and hold it in my hands. And as my professional skepticism crumpled for a moment, I found myself wanting desperately to believe that this was indeed Shakespeare's face.
Shakespeare’s Fans: Adapting the Bard in the Age of Media Fandom (Palgrave Studies in Adaptation and Visual Culture)
by Johnathan H. PopeThis book examines Shakespearean adaptations through the critical lens of fan studies and asks what it means to be a fan of Shakespeare in the context of contemporary media fandom. Although Shakespeare studies and fan studies have remained largely separate from one another for the past thirty years, this book establishes a sustained dialogue between the two fields. In the process, it reveals and seeks to overcome the problematic assumptions about the history of fan cultures, Shakespeare’s place in that history, and how fan works are defined. While fandom is normally perceived as a recent phenomenon focused primarily on science fiction and fantasy, this book traces fans’ practices back to the eighteenth century, particularly David Garrick’s Shakespeare Jubilee in 1769. Shakespeare’s Fans connects historical and scholarly debates over who owns Shakespeare and what constitutes an appropriate adaptation of his work to online fan fiction and commercially available fan works.
Shakespeare's Festive Comedy: A Study of Dramatic Form and Its Relation to Social Custom
by Cesar Lombardi BarberIn this classic work, acclaimed Shakespeare critic C. L. Barber argues that Elizabethan seasonal festivals such as May Day and Twelfth Night are the key to understanding Shakespeare's comedies. Brilliantly interweaving anthropology, social history, and literary criticism, Barber traces the inward journey--psychological, bodily, spiritual--of the comedies: from confusion, raucous laughter, aching desire, and aggression, to harmony. Revealing the interplay between social custom and dramatic form, the book shows how the Elizabethan antithesis between everyday and holiday comes to life in the comedies' combination of seriousness and levity. "I have been led into an exploration of the way the social form of Elizabethan holidays contributed to the dramatic form of festive comedy. To relate this drama to holiday has proved to be the most effective way to describe its character. And this historical interplay between social and artistic form has an interest of its own: we can see here, with more clarity of outline and detail than is usually possible, how art develops underlying configurations in the social life of a culture."--C. L. Barber, in the Introduction This new edition includes a foreword by Stephen Greenblatt, who discusses Barber's influence on later scholars and the recent critical disagreements that Barber has inspired, showing that Shakespeare's Festive Comedy is as vital today as when it was originally published.
Shakespeare's Folktale Sources
by Charlotte ArteseShakespeare’s Folktale Sources argues that seven plays—The Taming of the Shrew, Titus Andronicus, The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Merchant of Venice, All’s Well that Ends Well, Measure for Measure, and Cymbeline—derive one or more of their plots directly from folktales. In most cases, scholars have accepted one literary version of the folktale as a source. Recognizing that the same story has circulated orally and occurs in other medieval and early modern written versions allows for new readings of the plays. By acknowledging that a play’s source story circulated in multiple forms, we can see how the playwright was engaging his audience on common ground, retelling a story that may have been familiar to many of them, even the illiterate. We can also view the folktale play as a Shakespearean genre, defined by source as the chronicle histories are, that spans and traces the course of Shakespeare’s career. The fact that Shakespeare reworked folktales so frequently also changes the way we see the history of the literary folk- or fairy-tale, which is usually thought to bypass England and move from Italian novella collections to eighteenth-century French salons. Each chapter concludes with a bibliography listing versions of each folktale source as a resource for further research and teaching. Published by University of Delaware Press. Distributed worldwide by Rutgers University Press.
Shakespeare's Folktale Sources
by Charlotte ArteseShakespeare’s Folktale Sources argues that seven plays—The Taming of the Shrew, Titus Andronicus, The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Merchant of Venice, All’s Well that Ends Well, Measure for Measure, and Cymbeline—derive one or more of their plots directly from folktales. In most cases, scholars have accepted one literary version of the folktale as a source. Recognizing that the same story has circulated orally and occurs in other medieval and early modern written versions allows for new readings of the plays. By acknowledging that a play’s source story circulated in multiple forms, we can see how the playwright was engaging his audience on common ground, retelling a story that may have been familiar to many of them, even the illiterate. We can also view the folktale play as a Shakespearean genre, defined by source as the chronicle histories are, that spans and traces the course of Shakespeare’s career. The fact that Shakespeare reworked folktales so frequently also changes the way we see the history of the literary folk- or fairy-tale, which is usually thought to bypass England and move from Italian novella collections to eighteenth-century French salons. Each chapter concludes with a bibliography listing versions of each folktale source as a resource for further research and teaching. Published by University of Delaware Press. Distributed worldwide by Rutgers University Press.