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For many theatergoers and readers, Shakespeare's lofty reputation as the world's greatest playwright has turned him into an intimidating, even a forbidding figure. In Shakespeare High and Low, Jeffrey Knapp helps us to understand and enjoy Shakespeare's plays by restoring Shakespeare's own sense of them as neither high culture nor low culture, but a potent amalgam of both. Only in recognizing Shakespeare's determination to connect with every social class in his theater can we begin to grasp how his plays have managed to thrill audiences for so many centuries and across so many cultures.

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1981.

SHAKESPEARE: increasingly irrelevant or lone literary genius of the Western canon?'Powerful and illuminating'James Shapiro, author of 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare, winner of the Baillie Gifford'Winner of Winners'2023 Professor Farah Karim-Cooper grew up loving the Bard, perhaps because Romeo and Juliet felt Pakistani to her. But why was being white as a ‘snowy dove'essential to Juliet's beauty? Combining piercing analysis of race, gender and otherness in beloved plays from Othello to The Tempest with a radical reappraisal of Elizabethan London, The Great White Bard entreats us neither to idealise nor to fossilise Shakespeare but instead to look him in the eye and reckon with the discomforts of his plays, playhouses and society. If we persist in reading Shakespeare as representative of only one group, as the very pinnacle of the white Western canon, then he will truly be in peril. But if we dare to bring Shakespeare down from his plinth, we might unveil a playwright for the twenty-first century. We might expand and enrich his extraordinary legacy. We might even fall in love with him all over again. ••• A TIME MAGAZINE BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023'Insightful, passionate, piled with facts and has a warm, infectious love for theatre and Shakespeare running through every chapter.'ADRIAN LESTER, CBE'Dive in and your whole cultural landscape will be refreshed and reframed... A challenging, riveting read, The Great White Bard reminds us how powerful the stories we tell can be on our lives.'ADJOA ANDOH'Vivid… a thorough analysis but also a kind of love letter… Karim-Cooper sees Shakespeare as holding a mirror to this society, with his plays interrogating live issues around race, identity and the colonial enterprise… Her arguments come to feel essential and should be absorbed by every theatre director, writer, critic, interested in finding new ways into the work.'GUARDIAN'There are plenty of books on Shakespeare: but this one is different. This is Shakespeare as we've (most of us) never been willing to see him – and the works emerge from the analysis as newly complicit, powerful and yet recuperative.'EMMA SMITH, AUTHOR OF PORTABLE MAGIC

This encyclopaedic account of animals in Shakespeare's plays and poems, provides readers with a much-needed resource by which to navigate the recent outpouring of critical and historical work on the topic. This dictionary extends its coverage to include insects, fish and mythic creatures, as well as the places, practices and lore pertaining to all animal-oriented experiences of early modern life. It emphasizes the role of animality in defining character, and is attentive to the instabilities of the human-animal boundary as they were theatrically represented, exploited and interrogated, but it is also concerned with the material presence of animals on stage and in everyday life in Shakespeare's world. The volume is a new tool for instructors, but is also a resource for critics and scholars in the many disciplines engaged with animal studies, posthumanist theory, ecostudies and cultural studies.

This 14-volume set contains titles originally published between 1926 and 1992. An eclectic mix, this collection examines Shakespeare's work from a number of different perspectives, looking at history, language, performance and more it includes references to many of his plays as well as his sonnets.

Inspired by the verbal exuberance and richness of all that can be heard by audiences both on and off Shakespeare's stages, Shakespeare's Auditory Worlds examines such special listening situations as overhearing, eavesdropping, and asides. It breaks new ground by exploring the complex relationships between sound and sight, dialogue and blocking, dialects and other languages, re-voicings, and, finally, nonverbal or metaverbal relationships inherent in noise, sounds, and music, staging interstices that have been largely overlooked in the critical literature on aurality in Shakespeare. Its contributors include David Bevington, Ralph Alan Cohen, Steve Urkowitz, and Leslie Dunn, and, in a concluding “Virtual Roundtable” section, six seasoned repertory actors of the American Shakespeare Center as well, who discuss their nuanced hearing experiences on stage. Their “hearing” invites us to understand the multiple dimensions of Shakespeare's auditory world from the vantage point of actors who are listening “in the round” to what they hear from their onstage interlocutors, from offstage and backstage cues, from the musicians'galleries, and often most interestingly, from their audiences.

Fra l'ottobre del 1946 e il maggio del 1947, con cadenza settimanale, Auden tenne alla New School for Social Research di New York un ciclo di lezioni dedicate al teatro e ai «Sonetti» di Shakespeare. Ma chi immagini austeri ed esclusivi seminari per dottorandi in letteratura inglese è decisamente fuori strada: Auden si rivolgeva a un pubblico variegato, tumultuoso ed entusiasta di non meno di cinquecento persone – tanto che era spesso costretto a «gridare a squarciagola» e pregava coloro che non riuscivano a sentirlo di non alzare la mano «perché sono anche miope». Armato solo dell'edizione Kittredge delle opere di Shakespeare, della vastità prodigiosa della sua cultura e del suo impareggiabile humour – ma soprattutto della convinzione che la critica è conversazione improvvisata –, Auden parlava a braccio, incantando tutti. Ma anche spiazzandoli con la sua temeraria spregiudicatezza di outsider: anziché affrontare le «Allegre comari di Windsor» fece ascoltare il «Falstaff», sostenendo che la pièce non aveva altri meriti se non quello di aver fornito spunto a Verdi. E giunto alla «Bisbetica domata» avvertì che non vi si sarebbe soffermato a lungo perché era un totale fallimento – prendendo le mosse da quella stroncatura per un «excursus» sulla farsa che spazia dal «Grande dittatore» di Chaplin a irresistibili considerazioni sulla guerra fra i sessi. Ma è forse nella lezione dedicata ad «Antonio e Cleopatra», l'opera prediletta, che ci è dato di cogliere le ragioni dell'appassionata adesione del pubblico, giacché anche nelle vesti di critico Auden resta essenzialmente un poeta, capace di «parlare a tutti» – con la stessa miracolosa leggerezza che attribuiva a Shakespeare.

What does it signify when a Shakespearean character forgets something or when Hamlet determines to'wipe away all trivial fond records'? How might forgetting be an act to be performed, or be linked to forgiveness, such as when in The Winter's Tale Cleomenes encourages Leontes to'forget your evil. / With them, forgive yourself'? And what do we as readers and audiences forget of Shakespeare's works and of the performances we watch? This is the first book devoted to a broad consideration of how Shakespeare explores the concept of forgetting and how forgetting functions in performance. A wide-ranging study of how Shakespeare dramatizes forgetting, it offers close readings of Shakespeare's plays, considering what Shakespeare forgot and what we forget about Shakespeare. The book touches on an equally broad range of forgetting theory from antiquity through to the present day, of forgetting in recent novels and films, and of creative ways of making sense of how our world constructs the cultural meaning of and anxiety about forgetting. Drawing on dozens of productions across the history of Shakespeare on stage and film, the book explores Shakespeare's dramaturgy, from characters who forget what they were about to say, to characters who leave the stage never to return, from real forgetting to performed forgetting, from the mad to the powerful, from playgoers to Shakespeare himself.

With summaries, discussions, and excerpts from primary source documents, this book examines Shakespeare's world through careful consideration of the historical background of four of his comedies.Comedy was popular during the Renaissance, and it was also one of Shakespeare's specialties. The four plays discussed in this book, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Merchant of Venice, Twelfth Night and The Tempest, span Shakespeare's career and remind us that Shakespeare, more than any of his contemporaries, explored the possibilities of comedy, consistently developing new approaches to the genre. Shakespeare was a fairly traditional playwright, well aware of the long tradition of comedy, which dates back to the Greeks and Romans. This book places Shakespeare's comedies in their historical context. It includes dedicated chapters on each of the four comedies, with each chapter providing a plot summary, a discussion of the play's historical background and significance, and excerpts from primary source documents related to the play. An introduction surveys the historical background of the plays, while a timeline chronicles key events that influenced them. Suggestions for further reading direct readers to additional sources of information.

Shakespeare's plays have a long and varied performance history. The relevance of his plays in literary studies cannot be understated, but only recently have scholars been looking into the presence and significance of animals within the canon. Readers will quickly find—without having to do extensive research—that the plays are teeming with animals! In this Handbook, Karen Raber and Holly Dugan delve deep into Shakespeare's World to illuminate and understand the use of animals in his span of work. This volume supplies a valuable resource, offering a broad and thorough grounding in the many ways animal references and the appearance of actual animals in the plays can be interpreted. It provides a thorough overview; demonstrates rigorous, original research; and charts new frontiers in the field through a broad variety of contributions from an international group of well-known and respected scholars.

Being exposed to the Nominalist expansion in early modernity, Petrarch and Shakespeare are highly preoccupied with a Nominalist dimension of language and representation. Against this background, the study shows how these Renaissance poets advanced a special notion of subjectivity and identity as rooted in negativity, otherness, and representation. The book thus argues for a new understanding of negative modes of subjectivity in Petrarch and Shakespeare. A new and sharpened understanding emerging from an interpretation of Francesco Petrarch's notion of exile and of love in his great poetical cycle Rerum vulgarium fragmenta as well as a meticulous examination of the concept of nothingness in William Shakespeare's works. Petrarch and Shakespeare poetically show how identity is alien and decentred – yet also free and expanding. In other words, these poets illustrate how subjectivity is constituted by heterogeneity. Moreover, pointing to other examples of this negative subjectivity in Renaissance philosophy and poetry, the study suggests that these models for subjectivity could be extended to other early modern writers.

“Whatsoever a great man does, the same is done by others as well”, says the Bhagavadgītā. Shakespeare is one of such great men. He decocted man's cosmic world into his plays, and his characters display greatness along with humility and frailty. His plays, which so lucidly articulate the hidden process of interiority of the protagonists, are a living force even today. The problems that they portray and the consequences that they map are not dissimilar to those that the leaders of today's businesses encounter. Today's leaders are, of course, equipped with better tools to manage these, but they may not be superior to the spiritual depth or moral strength that we experience in these classics. In a refreshing approach, this book delineates theories of leadership and management through the characters and the themes of the Bard's plays, contextualizing their infinite variety to the concepts being expounded in today's business environment.

While many scholars in Shakespeare and Religious Studies assume a secularist viewpoint in their interpretation of Shakespeare's works, there are others that allow for a theologically coherent reading. Located within the turn to religion in Shakespeare studies, this book goes beyond the claim that Shakespeare simply made artistic use of religious material in his drama. It argues that his plays inhabit a complex and rich theological atmosphere, individually, by genre and as a body of work. The book begins by acknowledging that a plot-controlling God figure, or even a consistent theological dogma, is largely absent in the plays of Shakespeare. However, it argues that this absence is not necessarily a sign of secularization, but functions in a theologically generative manner. It goes on to suggest that the plays reveal a consistent, if variant, attention to the theological possibility of a divine'presence'mediated through human wit, both in gracious and malicious forms. Without any prejudice for divine intervention, the plots actually gesture on many turns toward a hidden supernatural'actor', or God. Making bold claims about the artistic and theological of Shakespeare's work, this book will be of interest to scholars of Theology and the Arts, Shakespeare and Literature more generally.

“Here is a person who shares with me a love of Shakespeare's mysterious depths of understanding. The ancient wisdom traditions underlie andsustain the incredible reflection of our souls in Shakespeare.” Sir Mark Rylance, first artistic director of Shakespeare's Globe, London (1995-2005). Eight arcana – alchemy, Renaissance Platonism (including Divine Love), Renaissance magic, the Cabala, Celtic mysticism and Old World religion, initiation, theurgy and the Bible – are identified by the author inShakespeare's plays as means to uncover long misunderstood mysteries and anomalies of his playwriting. Strange and unlikely events in the stage action of his plays are elucidated as metaphors of these arcana, all readily available to Shakespeare and other playwrights of his day. For example,in The Winter's Tale Shakespeare tells of a seacoast of Bohemia on whichthe ship carrying the baby Perdita, mariners and the courtier Antigonus are wrecked in a storm, the latter being eaten by a bear. A reading of theplay as a metaphor of chemical alchemy, clearly identified by the namesof the characters and the stage action, shows how the scene is indicativeof the alchemical stage of Putrefaction taking place in a bear-shaped vessel. In As You Like It, the reported action in the Forest of Arden where Orlando rescues his brother from a lion and a snake is sourced from severaltransforming arcana leading to brotherly reconciliation. SECRET MEANINGS IN SHAKESPEARE APPLIED TO STAGE PERFORMANCE is unique in that these meanings have been researched and developed specifically to inform stage performances by an international, professional theatre company – Theatre Set-Up (www.ts-u.co.uk). For over thirty years the author's esoteric interpretations have inspired and clarifiedthe company's productions to widespread critical and audience acclaim. About the AuthorWendy Jean Macphee (whose doctorate in arcana in Shakespeare was taken at the Shakespeare Institute of The University of Birmingham) was a teacher and lecturer in English, drama and music from 1960 to 2012and was founder, administrator, artistic director, actor and musician forTheatre Set-Up which toured Shakespeare's plays in heritage sites in the UK and in mainland Europe from 1976 to 2011.

A thorough and scholarly study of Spenser and Shakespeare and their contrary artistry, covering themes of theology, psychology, the depictions of passion and intellect, moral counsel, family hierarchy, self-love, temptation, folly, allegory, female heroism, the supernatural and much more. Renaissance psychologies examines the distinct and polarised emphasis of these two towering intellects and writers of the early modern period. It demonstrates how pervasive was the influence of Spenser on Shakespeare, as in the'playful metamorphosis of Gloriana into Titania'in A Midsummer Night's Dream and its return from Spenser's moralizing allegory to the Ovidian spirit of Shakespeare's comedy. It will appeal to students and lecturers in Spenser studies, Renaissance poetry and the wider fields of British literature, social and cultural history, ethics and theology.

Shakespeare and the Politics of Commoners is a highly original contribution to our understanding of Shakespeare's plays. It breaks important new ground in introducing readers, lay and scholarly alike, to the existence and character of the political culture of the mass of ordinary commoners in Shakespeare's England, as revealed by the recent findings of'the new social history'. The volume thereby helps to challenge the traditional myths of a non-political commons and a culture of obedience. It also brings together leading Shakespeareans, who digest recent social history, with eminent early modern social historians, who turn their focus on Shakespeare. This genuinely cross-disciplinary approach generates fresh readings of over ten of Shakespeare's plays and locates the impress on Shakespearean drama of popular political thought and pressure in this period of perceived crisis. The volume is unique in engaging and digesting the dramatic importance of the discoveries of the new social history, thereby resituating and revaluing Shakespeare within the social depth of politics.

Shakespeare's Thought: Unobserved Details and Unsuspected Depths in Eleven Plays demonstrates that Shakespeare's plays were conceived and executed as studies of great moral and political issues. After examining the divergent views of critics across the years, this book goes on to analyze eleven of Shakespeare's most famous plays, observing details and supplying interpretations that indicate the depth of his mind and the full extent of his artistic spirit. This book offers an in-depth exploration of the ways in which each play demonstrates Shakespeare's political thought and his poetic genius.

Through an examination of five plays by Shakespeare, Paul Raffield analyses the contiguous development of common law and poetic drama during the first decade of Jacobean rule. The broad premise of The Art of Law in Shakespeare is that the'artificial reason'of law was a complex art form that shared the same rhetorical strategy as the plays of Shakespeare. Common law and Shakespearean drama of this period employed various aesthetic devices to capture the imagination and the emotional attachment of their respective audiences. Common law of the Jacobean era, as spoken in the law courts, learnt at the Inns of Court and recorded in the law reports, used imagery that would have been familiar to audiences of Shakespeare's plays. In its juridical form, English law was intrinsically dramatic, its adversarial mode of expression being founded on an agonistic model. Conversely, Shakespeare borrowed from the common law some of its most critical themes: justice, legitimacy, sovereignty, community, fairness, and (above all else) humanity. Each chapter investigates a particular aspect of the common law, seen through the lens of a specific play by Shakespeare. Topics include the unprecedented significance of rhetorical skills to the practice and learning of common law (Love's Labour's Lost); the early modern treason trial as exemplar of the theatre of law (Macbeth); the art of law as the legitimate distillation of the law of nature (The Winter's Tale); the efforts of common lawyers to create an image of nationhood from both classical and Judeo-Christian mythography (Cymbeline); and the theatrical device of the island as microcosm of the Jacobean state and the project of imperial expansion (The Tempest).

This expansive four-volume work gives students detailed explanations of Shakespeare's plays and poems and also covers his age, life, theater, texts, and language. Numerous excerpts from primary source historical documents contextualize his works, while reviews of productions chronicle his performance history and reception.Shakespeare's works often served to convey simple truths, but they are also complex, multilayered masterpieces. Shakespeare drew on varied sources to create his plays, and while the plays are sometimes set in worlds before the Elizabethan age, they nonetheless parallel and comment on situations in his own era. Written with the needs of students in mind, this four-volume set demystifies Shakespeare for today's readers and provides the necessary perspective and analysis students need to better appreciate the genius of his work. This indispensable ready reference examines Shakespeare's plots, language, and themes; his use of sources and exploration of issues important to his age; the interpretation of his works through productions from the Renaissance to the present; and the critical reaction to key questions concerning his writings. The book provides coverage of each key play and poems in discrete sections, with each section presenting summaries; discussions of themes, characters, language, and imagery; and clear explications of key passages. Readers will be able to inspect historical documents related to the topics explored in the work being discussed and view excerpts from Shakespeare's sources as well as reviews of major productions. The work also provides a comprehensive list of print and electronic resources suitable for student research.

The Globe Guide to Shakespeare is the ultimate guide to the life and work of the world's greatest playwright: William Shakespeare. With full coverage of the 39 Shakespearian plays, including a synopsis, full character list, stage history and a critical essay for each, this comprehensive guide is both a quick reference and in-depth background guide for theatre goers, students, film buffs and lovers of literature alike. The Globe Guide to Shakespeare also explores Shakespeare's sonnets and the narrative poems, combined with fascinating accounts of Shakespeare's life and theatre, exploring in colourful detail each play's original performances. This comprehensive guide includes up-to-date reviews of the best films and audio recordings of each play, from Laurence Olivier to Baz Luhrmann, Kozintsev to Kurosawa. The Globe Guide to Shakespeare is a celebration of all things Shakespearian. Published to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death.

See Shakespeare's plays as a member of an Elizabethan audience would have done! Six plays are examined in an original and engaging way, re-entering the culture and mind set of Shakespeare's time.If you are already familiar with the plays you will gain fascinating insights. If you have only slight knowledge you will certainly be drawn in to read more.The plays are:Titus AndronicusRichard the ThirdThe Merchant of VeniceMeasure for MeasureOthelloThe TempestPaul Clark is a retired academic with a life-long interest in and knowledge of Shakespeare. He lives in London.

101 Short Essays on Shakespeare is an accessible and jargon-free guide, whether you're new to Shakespeare, or a seasoned playgoer. Contents include: General introductions to the comedies, tragedies & histories. Essays on all 38 plays, as well as the poems. Information about Shakespeare's life and times. Discussion of theatre and performance. Fascinating looks at a variety of background topics, including hoaxes, smut, Shakespeare's women, and the Shakespeare industry. Can be used as a complete Shakespeare course, or as a dip-in reference book!

The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare is the most comprehensive reference work available on Shakespeare's life, times, works, and his 400-year global legacy. In addition to the authoritative A-Z entries, it includes nearly 100 illustrations, a chronology, a guide to further reading, a thematic contents list, and special feature entries on each of Shakespeare's works. Tying in with the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death, this much-loved Companion has been revised and updated, reflecting developments and discoveries made in recent years and to cover the performance, interpretation, and the influence of Shakespeare's works up to the present day. First published in 2001, the online edition was revised in 2011, with updates to over 200 entries plus 16 new entries. These online updates appear in print for the first time in this second edition, along with a further 35,000 new and revised words. These include more than 80 new entries, ranging from important performers, directors, and scholars (such as Lucy Bailey, Samuel West, and Alfredo Michel Modenessi), to topics as diverse as Shakespeare in the digital age and the ubiquity of plants in Shakespeare's works, to the interpretation of Shakespeare globally, from Finland to Iraq. To make information on Shakespeare's major works easier to find, the feature entries have been grouped and placed in a centre section (fully cross-referenced from the A-Z). The thematic listing of entries - described in the press as'an invaluable panorama of the contents'- has been updated to include all of the new entries. This edition contains a preface written by much-lauded Shakespearian actor Simon Russell Beale. Full of both entertaining trivia and scholarly detail, this authoritative Companion will delight the browser and reward students, academics, as well as anyone wanting to know more about Shakespeare.

Shipwrecked: Disaster and Transformation in Homer, Shakespeare, Defoe, and the Modern World presents the first comparative study of notable literary shipwrecks from the past four thousand years, focusing on Homer's Odyssey, Shakespeare's The Tempest, and Defoe's Robinson Crusoe. James V. Morrison considers the historical context as well as the “triggers” (such as the 1609 Bermuda shipwreck) that inspired some of these works, and modern responses such as novels (Golding's Lord of the Flies, Coetzee's Foe, and Gordon's First on Mars, a science fiction version of the Crusoe story), movies, television (Forbidden Planet, Cast Away, and Lost), and the poetry and plays of Caribbean poets Derek Walcott and Aimé Césaire. The recurrent treatment of shipwrecks in the creative arts demonstrates an enduring fascination with this archetypal scene: a shipwreck survivor confronting the elements. It is remarkable, for example, that the characters in the 2004 television show Lost share so many features with those from Homer's Odyssey and Shakespeare's The Tempest. For survivors who are stranded on an island for some period of time, shipwrecks often present the possibility of a change in political and social status—as well as romance and even paradise. In each of the major shipwreck narratives examined, the poet or novelist links the castaways'arrival on a new shore with the possibility of a new sort of life. Readers will come to appreciate the shift in attitude toward the opportunities offered by shipwreck: older texts such as the Odyssey reveals a trajectory of returning to the previous order. In spite of enticing new temptations, Odysseus—and some of the survivors in The Tempest—revert to their previous lives, rejecting what many might consider paradise. Odysseus is reestablished as king; Prospero travels back to Milan. In such situations, we may more properly speak of potential transformations. In contrast, many recent shipwreck narratives instead embrace the possibility of a new sort of existence. That even now the shipwreck theme continues to be treated, in multiple media, testifies to its long-lasting appeal to a very wide audience.

What makes Shakespeare's late plays so special? Through detailed analyses of key passages, Kate Aughterson shows how these plays portray a world of political intrigue, familial chaos and crisis, which teeters continually into tragedy: a world we can recognise today. Part I of this engaging study:• provides stimulating close readings of extracts from The Tempest, The Winter's Tale, Cymbeline and Pericles• examines major topics such as openings, endings, familial roles, stage properties, spectacle and song• offers suggestions for further work and summarizes the methods of analysis.Part II supplies essential background material, including:• detailed accounts of Shakespeare's literary and historical contexts• samples from important critical works and performances.With a helpful Further Reading section, this illuminating volume is ideal for anyone who wishes to appreciate and explore Shakespeare's late plays for themselves.

What makes Shakespeare's late plays so special? Through detailed analyses of key passages, Kate Aughterson shows how these plays portray a world of political intrigue, familial chaos and crisis, which teeters continually into tragedy: a world we can recognise today. Part I of this engaging study:• provides stimulating close readings of extracts from The Tempest, The Winter's Tale, Cymbeline and Pericles• examines major topics such as openings, endings, familial roles, stage properties, spectacle and song• offers suggestions for further work and summarizes the methods of analysis.Part II supplies essential background material, including:• detailed accounts of Shakespeare's literary and historical contexts• samples from important critical works and performances.With a helpful Further Reading section, this illuminating volume is ideal for anyone who wishes to appreciate and explore Shakespeare's late plays for themselves.

Thirteen leading actors take us behind the scenes, each recreating in detail a memorable performance in one of Shakespeare's major roles. - Brian Cox on Titus Andronicus in Deborah Warner's visceral RSC production - Judi Dench on being directed by Franco Zeffirelli as a twenty-three-year-old Juliet - Ralph Fiennes on Shakespeare's least sympathetic hero Coriolanus - Rebecca Hall on Rosalind in As You Like It, directed by her father, Sir Peter - Derek Jacobi on his hilariously poker-backed Malvolio for Michael Grandage - Jude Law on his Hamlet, a palpable hit in the West End and on Broadway - Adrian Lester on a modern-dress Henry V at the National, during the invasion of Iraq - Ian McKellen on his Macbeth, opposite Judi Dench in Trevor Nunn's RSC production - Helen Mirren on a role she was born for, and has played three times: Cleopatra - Tim Pigott-Smith on Leontes in Peter Hall's Restoration Winter's Tale at the National - Kevin Spacey on his high-tech, modern-dress Richard II - Patrick Stewart on Prospero in Rupert Goold's arctic Tempest for the RSC - Penelope Wilton on Isabella in Jonathan Miller's'chamber'Measure for MeasureThe actors discuss their characters, working through the play scene by scene, with refreshing candour and in forensic detail. The result is a masterclass on playing each role, invaluable for other actors and directors, as well as students of Shakespeare - and fascinating for audiences of the plays. Together, the interviews give one of the most comprehensive pictures yet of these characters in performance, and of the choices that these great actors have made in bringing them thrillingly to life. Each interview is also available as an individual ebook as part of the Shakespeare on Stage series.'These passages of times remembered contribute vividly to the sense of a teemingly creative period when Shakespeare seemed to have been rediscovered.'Trevor Nunn, from his Foreword'absorbing and original... Curry's actors are often thinking and talking as that other professional performer, Shakespeare himself, might have done'TLS

Arden Student Guides: Language and Writing offer a new type of study aid which combines lively critical insight with practical guidance on the critical writing skills you need to develop in order to engage fully with Shakespeare's texts. The books'core focus is on language: both understanding and enjoying Shakespeare's complex dramatic language, and expanding your own critical vocabulary, as you respond to his plays. Key features include: • an introduction considering when and how the play was written, addressing the language with which Shakespeare created his work, as well as the generic, literary and theatrical conventions at his disposal • detailed examination and analysis of the individual text, focusing on its literary, technical and historical intricacies • discussion of performance history and the critical reception of the work • a'Writing matters'section in every chapter, clearly linking the analysis of Shakespeare's language to your own writing strategies in coursework and examinationsWritten by world-class academics with both scholarly insight and outstanding teaching skills, each guide will empower you to read and write about Shakespeare with increased confidence and enthusiasm. Shakespeare's The Tempest is among the most widely-admired works of literature. More than any other Shakespeare play, it has lent itself to rewriting and is among the most'metadramatic'of Shakespeare's works, pondering the value of creating worlds with words.

In this slim, poetically powerful volume, Piero Boitani develops his earlier work in The Bible and Its Rewritings, focusing on Shakespeare's “rescripturing” of the Gospels. Boitani persuasively urges that Shakespeare read the New Testament with great care and an overall sense of affirmation and participation, and that many of his plays constitute their own original testament, insofar as they translate the good news into human terms. In Hamlet and King Lear, he suggests, Shakespeare's'New Testament'is merely hinted at, and faith, salvation, and peace are only glimpsed from far away. But in Pericles, Cymbeline, The Winter's Tale, and The Tempest, the themes of compassion and forgiveness, transcendence, immanence, the role of the deity, resurrection, and epiphany are openly, if often obliquely, staged. The Christian Gospels and the Christian Bible are the signposts of this itinerary.Originally published in 2009, Boitani's Il Vangelo Secondo Shakespeare was awarded the 2010 De Sanctis Prize, a prestigious Italian literary award. Now available for the first time in an English translation, The Gospel according to Shakespeare brings to a broad scholarly and nonscholarly audience Boitani's insights into the current themes dominating the study of Shakespeare's literary theology. It will be of special interest to general readers interested in Shakespeare's originality and religious perspective.

This volume, examining the ways in which Shakespeare's plays are designed for hearers as well as spectators, has been prompted by recent explorations of the auditory dimension of early modern drama by such scholars as Andrew Gurr, Bruce Smith, and James Hirsh. To look at the dynamics of hearing in Shakespeare's plays involves a paradigm shift that changes how we understand virtually everything about them, from the architecture of the buildings, to playing spaces, to blocking, and to larger interpretative issues, including our understanding of character based on players'responses to what they hear, mishear, or refuse to hear. Who Hears in Shakespeare? Auditory Worlds on Stageand Screen is comprised of three sections on Shakespeare's texts and performance history: “The Poetics of Hearing and the Early Modern Stage”; “Metahearing: Hearing, Knowing, and Audiences, Onstage and Off”; and “Transhearing: Hearing, Whispering, Overhearing, and Eavesdropping in Film and Other Media.”Chapters by noted scholars explore the complex reactions and interactions of onstage and offstage audiences and show how Shakespearean stagecraft, actualized on stage and adapted on screen, revolves around various situations and conventions of hearing—soliloquies,, asides, avesdropping, overhearing, and stage whispers. In short, Who Hears in Shakespeare? enunciates Shakespeare's nuanced, powerful stagecraft of hearing. The volume ends with Stephen Booth's afterword, his inspiring meditation on hearing that considers Shakespearean “audiences” and their responses to what they hear—or don't hear—in Shakespeare's plays.

Chapter 1 - Biography of William Shakespeare Chapter 2 - Shakespeare in Performance Chapter 3 - Shakespeare's Sonnets and Influence Chapter 4 - Reputation and Criticism Chapter 5 - Shakespeare Authorship Question Chapter 6 - Comedy Plays by William Shakespeare Chapter 7 - History Plays by William Shakespeare Chapter 8 - Tragedy Plays by William Shakespeare

A highly engaging text that approaches Shakespeare as a maker of theatre, as well as a writer of literature. Leading performance critics dismantle Shakespeare's texts, identifying theatrical cues in ways which develop understanding of the underlying theatricality of Shakespeare's plays and stimulate further performances.

Includes the unabridged text of Shakespeare's classic play plus a complete study guide that helps readers gain a thorough understanding of the work's content and context. The comprehensive guide includes scene-by-scene summaries, explanations and discussions of the plot, question-and-answer sections, author biography, analytical paper topics, list of characters, bibliography, and more.

Shakespeare without Boundaries: Essays in Honor of Dieter Mehl offers a wide-ranging collection of essays written by an international team of distinguished scholars who attempt to define, to challenge, and to erode boundaries that currently inhibit understanding of Shakespeare, and to exemplify how approaches that defy traditional bounds of study and criticism may enhance understanding and enjoyment of a dramatist who acknowledged no boundaries in art. The Volume is published in tribute to Professor Dieter Mehl, whose critical and scholarly work on authors from Chaucer through Shakespeare to D. H. Lawrence has transcended temporal and national boundaries in its range and scope, and who, as Ann Jennalie Cook writes, has contributed significantly to the erasure of political boundaries that have endangered the unity of German literary scholarship and, more broadly, through his work for the International Shakespeare Association, to the globalization of Shakespeare studies.

“Fascinating....Loaded with perceptive and provocative comments on Shakespeare's plots, characters, and contemporary analogs.”—Justice John Paul Stevens, Supreme Court of the United States“Kenji Yoshino is the face and the voice of the new civil rights.”—Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickled and DimedA Thousand Times More Fair is a highly inventive and provocative exploration of ethics and the law that uses the plays of William Shakespeare as a prism through which to view the nature of justice in our contemporary lives. Celebrated law professor and author Kenji Yoshino delves into ten of the most important works of the Immortal Bard of Avon, offering prescient and thought-provoking discussions of lawyers, property rights, vengeance (legal and otherwise), and restitution that have tremendous significance to the defining events of our times—from the O.J. Simpson trial to Abu Ghraib. Anyone fascinated by important legal and social issues—as well as fans of Shakespeare-centered bestsellers like Will in the World—will find A Thousand Times More Fair an exceptionally rewarding reading experience.

The works of William Shakespeare vividly represent for our admiration and study a pageant of souls with longing in whose wake we ceaselessly follow. Through some of his most memorable characters, Shakespeare illuminates the nature and character—as well as consequences—of our distinctively human passions and ambition, in particular our desire for and pursuit of both honor and love. The contributors to this collaborative volume (scholars in English Literature, Political Philosophy, and the Humanities) argue that Shakespeare has much to teach us about our longing for honor and love in particular, and thus about who we are, what we desire, and why. Through sustained reflection on the Shakespearean portraits of honor and love, which are the focus of the chapters in Souls With Longing, we become more keenly aware of our own humanity and come to know ourselves more profoundly. As the abiding popularity of his works aptly demonstrates, Shakespeare's unforgettable portraits of souls with longing—his representations of honor and love—continue to exert undeniable sway over our political, moral, and romantic imaginations.

Description based on print version record.

Exploring Shakespeare's intellectual interest in placing both characters and audiences in a state of uncertainty, mystery, and doubt, this book interrogates the use of paradox in Shakespeare's plays and in performance. By adopting this discourse-one in which opposites can co-exist and perspectives can be altered, and one that asks accepted opinions, beliefs, and truths to be reconsidered-Shakespeare used paradox to question love, gender, knowledge, and truth from multiple perspectives. Committed to situating literature within the larger culture, Peter Platt begins by examining the Renaissance culture of paradox in both the classical and Christian traditions. He then looks at selected plays in terms of paradox, including the geographical site of Venice in Othello and The Merchant of Venice, and equity law in The Comedy of Errors, Merchant, and Measure for Measure. Platt also considers the paradoxes of theater and live performance that were central to Shakespearean drama, such as the duality of the player, the boy-actor and gender, and the play/audience relationship in the Henriad, Hamlet, As You Like It, Twelfth Night, Antony and Cleopatra, The Winter's Tale, and The Tempest. In showing that Shakespeare's plays create and are created by a culture of paradox, Platt offers an exciting and innovative investigation of Shakespeare's cognitive and affective power over his audience.

Paul A. Kottman offers a new and compelling understanding of tragedy as seen in four of Shakespeare's mature plays—As You Like It, Hamlet, King Lear, and The Tempest. The author pushes beyond traditional ways of thinking about tragedy, framing his readings with simple questions that have been missing from scholarship of the past generation: Are we still moved by Shakespeare, and why? Kottman throws into question the inheritability of human relationships by showing how the bonds upon which we depend for meaning and worth can be dissolved. According to Kottman, the lives of Shakespeare's protagonists are conditioned by social bonds—kinship ties, civic relations, economic dependencies, political allegiances—that unravel irreparably. This breakdown means they can neither inherit nor bequeath a livable or desirable form of sociality. Orlando and Rosalind inherit nothing “but growth itself” before becoming refugees in the Forest of Arden; Hamlet is disinherited not only by Claudius's election but by the sheer vacuity of the activities that remain open to him; Lear's disinheritance of Cordelia bequeaths a series of events that finally leave the social sphere itself forsaken of heirs and forbearers alike. Firmly rooted in the philosophical tradition of reading Shakespeare, this bold work is the first sustained interpretation of Shakespearean tragedy since Stanley Cavell's work on skepticism and A. C. Bradley's century-old Shakespearean Tragedy.

Here Art Thou, True Shakespeare!This accessible new guide to Shakespeare's major plays focuses on the essence of the spoken word and the benefits of watching the plays in performance - on the stage or screen - whenever possible. You'll find tips about plot, theme, famous passages and soliloquies, and how to hear the music within the Bard's verse and wordplay. Remember - Shakespearean theatre is a social art form, and in its earliest days, it was highly commercial. This book brings you closer to the heady world of freelance playwriting and the London playhouses of the 1590s. As a playwright and sharer in the Globe theatre, Shakespeare was at the forefront of Western show business. This book highlights Shakespeare's career, his dramatic influences, and what 16th-century playgoers in London would have experienced inside the theatre. In The Complete Idiot's Guide to Shakespeare's Plays, cultural and historical contexts for the major plays are explored, offering perspectives of the director and actor, in addition to that of the scholar and close reader. In particular, the book takes you behind the scenes with Shakespearean directors, who offer commentary about key challenges presented by the plays, famous roles, and a host of other production concerns. Professional actors also discuss how they've tackled lead roles in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Much Ado About Nothing, The Merchant of Venice, King Lear, Antony and Cleopatra, and The Tempest, among others.You'll find:- Twenty (20) major plays explored in depth, explaining literary terms, and Elizabethan English, with attention to language and verse- A look at how the plays have been staged, from the earliest playhouses to contemporary auditoriums- Appendices spotlighting Shakespeare's likely collaborations, a glossary, suggested further reading, and tips about acclaimed film and audio versions. Perfect for English and drama students, general readers, theatergoers, and actors.

How might the storm be staged for a performance of The Tempest? What do Caliban and Ariel look like? How might the speaking of significantly placed lines potentially affect our enjoyment of the play? The extended commentary at the heart of this Handbook helps readers to see and hear The Tempest as they read, and explore its theatrical potential in terms of such staging challenges. The Handbook also includes:- sections that discuss the play's text and early performances, and the theatrical and cultural context in which it was created- quotations from original documents and a wide variety of responses from later critics which allow the reader direct access to contemporary thought and to developments in critical assessments of the play- coverage of key theatrical interpretations by figures such as Charles Kean, Beerbohm Tree, John Gielgud, Patrick Stewart and Simon Sussell Beale- exploration of major film productions including Forbidden Planet, Prospero's Books and Derek Jarman's Tempest.This Handbook is a stimulating resource, as well as an excellent guide to the'rich and strange'life of one of Shakespeare's most enigmatic plays.

Rev. ed. of: Shakespeare A to Z. 1990.

Exile defines the Shakespearean canon, from The Two Gentlemen of Verona to The Two Noble Kinsmen. This book traces the influences on the drama of exile, examining the legal context of banishment (pursued against Catholics, gypsies and vagabonds) in early modern England; the self-consciousness of exile as an amatory trope; and the discourses by which exile could be reshaped into comedy or tragedy. Across genres, Shakespeare's plays reveal a fascination with exile as the source of linguistic crisis, shaped by the utterance of that word'Banished'.

In this engaging text, Arthur Kinney introduces students to Shakespeare's plays in the context of Elizabethan and Jacobean theater. Introduces students to Shakespeare's plays in the context of Elizabethan and Jacobean theater. Focuses on the material conditions of playing and of playgoing. Covers venues, audiences, actors, society, government and regulation. Each topic is considered in relation to a selection of Shakespeare's plays. Shows students how the plays and the context in which they were produced illuminate one another.

This four-volume Companion to Shakespeare's Works, compiled as a single entity, offers a uniquely comprehensive snapshot of current Shakespeare criticism. Brings together new essays from a mixture of younger and more established scholars from around the world - Australia, Canada, France, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Examines each of Shakespeare's plays and major poems, using all the resources of contemporary criticism, from performance studies to feminist, historicist, and textual analysis. Volumes are organized in relation to generic categories: namely the histories, the tragedies, the romantic comedies, and the late plays, problem plays and poems. Each volume contains individual essays on all texts in the relevant category, as well as more general essays looking at critical issues and approaches more widely relevant to the genre. Offers a provocative roadmap to Shakespeare studies at the dawning of the twenty-first century. This companion to Shakespeare's poems, problem comedies and late plays contains original essays on Troilus and Cressida, Measure for Measure, All's Well That Ends Well,'Venus and Adonis','The Rape of Lucrece', and'The Sonnets', as well as Pericles, The Winter's Tale, Cymbeline, The Tempest, and The Two Noble Kinsmen.

Who's Who in Shakespeare presents a complete and handy guide to the men and women who throng Shakespeare's plays. It provides:• detailed biographical information on each leading figure• analyses of the role and significance of each minor figure• a reliable guide to the huge Shakespearian canon for student and teacher• quotations from famous critics• useful information on some of Shakespeare's sources.From Antonio to Yorick, Macbeth to Mercutio, this book embraces the breadth and depth of the world's most important playwright.

The Tempest: Critical Essays traces the history of Shakespeare's controversial late romance from its early reception (and adaptation) in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to the present. The volume reprints influential criticism, and it also offers eight originalessays which study The Tempest from a variety of contemporary perspectives, including cultural materialism, feminism, deconstruction, performance theory, and postcolonial studies. Unlike recent anthologies about The Tempest which reprint contemporary articles along with a few new essays, this volume contains a mixture of old and new materials pertaining to the play's use in the theater and in literary history.