Literary studies: plays and playwrights Books

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Book SynopsisThis is an English translation of Aristophanes' greatest comedy the Birds and is the story of birds taking control of the government. Includes background material on the historical and cultural context of this work, suggestions for further reading, and notes. Focus Classical Library provides close translations with notes and essays to provide access to understanding Greek culture.

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Book SynopsisFrom its beginnings, the American film industry has profited from bringing popular and acclaimed dramatic works to the screen. This is the first book to offer a comprehensive account, focusing on key texts, of how Hollywood has given a second and enduring life to such classics of the American theater as Long Day's Journey into Night, A Streetcar Named Desire and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Each chapter is written by a leading scholar and focuses on Broadway's most admired and popular productions. The book is ideally suited for classroom use and offers an otherwise unavailable introduction to a subject which is of great interest to students and scholars alike.Table of ContentsIntroduction R. Barton Palmer and William Robert Bray; 1. Realism, censorship, and social promise of Dead End Amanda Klein; 2. Screening Our Town (1940): or the problem of 'looking at everything hard enough' David Eldridge; 3. Screening Death of a Salesman: Arthur Miller's cinema and its discontents R. Barton Palmer; 4. Elia Kazan's A Streetcar Named Desire William Robert Bray; 5. Come back, little Scopophile: William Inge, Daniel Mann, and cinematic voyeurism John S. Bak; 6. The Big Knife: Hollywood's 'fable about moral values and success' Christopher Ames; 7. Adapting Lorraine Hansberry's sociological imagination: race, housing, and health in A Raisin in the Sun Martin Halliwell; 8. The Children's Hour Neil Sinyard; 9. Screening Long Day's Journey into Night Mary F. Brewer; 10. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? David Lavery and Nancy McGuire Roche; 11. Sex, lies, and independent film: realism and reality in Sam Shepard's Fool for Love Annette Saddik; 12. Actor, image, action: Anthony Drazan's Hurlyburly (1998) Laurence Raw; 13. David Mamet brings film to Oleanna Brenda Murphy; 14. To what end Wit? John D. Sykes, Jr; 15. Theatrical, cinematic, and domestic epic in Tony Kushner's Angels in America (on stage and screen) Tison Pugh; Filmography.

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Book SynopsisHow was medieval English theatre performed? This book analyses dormant evidence of theatrical processes such as casting, doubling of parts, rehearsing, memorising, cueing, entering, exiting, playing, prompting, timing, hearing, seeing and responding. All these concerns point to a very different kind of theatre to the naturalistic theatre produced today.Trade Review'Butterworth's book will be of use to those seeking a scholarly discussion of problems and strategies in the performance of medieval drama, both as it was once written and played, and for contemporary revivals. His knowledge is extensive and his practical experience of the staging of many of these works clearly and helpfully informs his comments on their characteristic ways of working in space, time, and action.' Tom Bishop, SpeculumTable of ContentsIntroduction; 1. Outdoors and indoors; 2. Casting and doubling; 3. Rehearsing, memorising and cueing; 4. Coming and going; 5. Playing, feigning and counterfeiting; 6. Dressing and disguising; 7. Expounding and monitoring; 8. Effecting effects; 9. Timing and waiting; 10. Hearing, seeing and responding.

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Book SynopsisBy 1800 London had as many theatre seats for sale as the city's population. This was the start of the capital's rise as a centre for performing arts. Worrall brings to life a period of extraordinary theatrical vitality, re-examining the beginnings of celebrity culture amidst a monopolistic commercial theatrical marketplace.Trade Review'Quirky, original, entertaining … liberally packed with fascinating material viewed from unusual perspectives.' The Times Literary Supplement'This book brings groundbreaking research to bear on its discussion of actors, performances, audiences, and playhouses in Britain in the 1780s and 1790s … [a] rich and fascinating study …' Helen M. Burke, Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Theatre ResearchTable of ContentsIntroduction: theatre, performance and social assemblage theory; 1. Theatrical assemblages and theatrical markets; 2. Georgian performance and the assemblage model; 3. Theatrical celebrity as social assemblage: from Garrick to Kean; 4. Celebrity networks: Kean and Siddons; 5. A working theatrical assemblage: 1790s representations of naval conflict; 6. Theatrical assemblage populations: the Turkish ambassador's visits to London playhouses, 1794; 7. Historicising the theatrical assemblage: Marie Antoinette and the theatrical queens; 8. The regulatory assemblage: The Roman Actor and the politics of self-censorship; Conclusion; Appendix: actor-network theory.

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Book SynopsisThis book argues that New Comedy has a far richer performance texture than has previously been recognised. Offering close readings of all the major plays of Menander, it shows how intertextuality - the sustained dialogue of New Comedy performance with the diverse ideological, philosophical, literary and theatrical discourses of contemporary polis culture - is crucial in creating semantic depth and thus offsetting the impression that the plots are simplistic love stories with no political or ideological resonances. It also explores how the visual aspect of the plays (''opsis'') is just as important as any verbal means of signification - a phenomenon termed ''intervisuality'', examining in particular depth the ways in which the mask can infuse various systems of reference into the play. Masks like the panchrestos neaniskos (the ''all-perfect youth''), for example, are now full of meaning; thus, with their ideologically marked physiognomies, they can be strong instigators of literary and cultural allusion.Table of ContentsIntroduction; 1. Menander's New Comedy between reality and textuality; 2. New performance: visuality and intervisuality in Menander; 3. Of Greeks and others: mask, character and action in New Comedy; 4. Of mice and (young) men: the mask as inter-face; 5. A few good men: the panchrēstos mask and the politics of perfection.

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Book SynopsisLooking at Shakespeare's depictions of moral deliberation and individual choice in light of Renaissance debates about ethics, this collection illuminates Shakespeare's engagement with the most pressing moral questions of his time. It is of great interest to scholars of Shakespeare and Renaissance studies, and the history of ethics.Table of ContentsIntroduction: rethinking Shakespeare and ethics Patrick Gray and John D. Cox; Part I. Shakespeare and Classical Ethics: 1. Fame, eternity, and Shakespeare's Romans Gordon Braden; 2. Shakespeare and the ethics of laughter Indira Ghose; 3. Aristotelian shame and Christian mortification in Love's Labour's Lost Jane Kingsley-Smith; 4. Shakespeare's Vergil: empathy and The Tempest Leah Whittington; Part II. Shakespeare and Christian Ethics: 5. Shakespeare's prayers John D. Cox; 6. The morality of milk: Shakespeare and the ethics of nursing Beatrice Groves; 7. Hamlet the rough-hewer: moral agency and the consolations of Reformation thought Russell M. Hillier; 8. 'Wrying but a little'? Marriage, punishment, and forgiveness in Cymbeline Robert S. Miola; Part III. Shakespeare and the Ethical Thinking of Montaigne: 9. 'Hide thy selfe': Montaigne, Hamlet, and Epicurean ethics Patrick Gray; 10. Conscience and the god-surrogate in Montaigne and Measure for Measure William M. Hamlin; 11. Shakespeare, Montaigne, and classical reason Peter Holbrook; 12. Madness, proverbial wisdom, and philosophy in King Lear Peter Mack.

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Book SynopsisShakespeare Survey is a yearbook of Shakespeare studies and production which has published the best international scholarship in English since 1948. The theme for Volume 68 is 'Shakespeare, Origins and Originality'. The complete set of Survey volumes is also available online at http://www.cambridge.org/online/shakespearesurvey.Table of Contents1. Shakespeare's anecdotal character Margreta de Grazia; 2. What is a source? Or, how Shakespeare read His Marlowe Laurie Maguire and Emma Smith; 3. Imitation or collaboration? Marlowe and the early Shakespeare canon Gary Taylor and John V. Nance; 4. 'O Jephthah, judge of Israel': from original to accreted meanings in Hamlet's allusion Péter Dávidházi; 5. The elephants' graveyard revisited: Shakespeare at work in Antony and Cleopatra, Romeo and Juliet and All's Well That Ends Well Catherine Belsey; 6. 'Every like is not the same': translating Shakespeare in Spanish today Alfredo Michel Modenessi; 7. Reading originals by the light of translations Tom Cheesman; 8. 'My name is Will': Shakespeare's sonnets and autobiography Stanley Wells; 9. Tracings and data in The Tempest: author, world and representation Janet Clare; 10. Shakespearean gesture: narrative and iconography Farah Karim-Cooper; 11. The origin of the late Renaissance dramatic convention of self-addressed speech James Hirsh; 12. Reading in their present: early readers and the origins of Shakespearian appropriation Jean-Christophe Mayer; 13. Shakespeare out of time (or, Hugo takes dictation from the beyond) Ruth Morse; 14. Betrayal, derail, or a thin veil: the myth of origin Bi-qi Beatrice Lei; 15. Global Shakespeares, affective histories, cultural memories Jyotsna G. Singh and Abdulhamit Arvas; 16. Spinach and tobacco: making Shakespearian unoriginals Peter Holland; 17. Ren Fest Shakespeare: the cosplay Bard Andrew James Hartley; 18. 'Dead as earth': contemporary topicality and myths of origin in King Lear and The Shadow King Kate Flaherty; 19. Shakespeare and the idea of national theatres Michael Dobson; 20. John Rice and the boys of the Jacobean King's Men David Kathman; 21. Shakespeare's Irish lives: the politics of biography Andrew Murphy; 22. Shakespeare in blockaded Berlin: the 1948 'Elizabethan Festival' Bettina Boecker; 23. Connecting the Globe: actors, audience and entrainment Robert Shaughnessy; 24. 'Freetown!': Shakespeare and social flourishing Ewan Fernie; 25. We'll always have Paris: the third household and the 'bed of death' in Romeo and Juliet Nicholas Crawford; 26. The 'serpent of old Nile': Cleopatra and the pragmatics of reported speech Jelena Marelj; 27. 'This insubstantial pageant faded': the drama of semiotic anxiety in The Tempest Lynn Forest-Hill; 28. Shakespeare performances in England 2014 Carol Chillington Rutter; 29. Professional Shakespeare productions in the British Isles, January–December 2013 James Shaw; The year's contribution to Shakespeare studies: 1. Critical studies Charlotte Scott; 2. Shakespeare in performance Russell Jackson; 3. Editions and textual studies Peter Kirwan.

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Book SynopsisThis innovative exploration of the recurring use of particular objects in Samuel Beckett''s work is the first study of the material imagination of any single modern author. Across five decades of aesthetic and formal experimentation in fiction, drama, poetry and film, Beckett made substantial use of only fourteen objects - well-worn not only where they appear within his works but also in terms of their recurrence throughout his creative corpus. In this volume, Bates offers a striking reappraisal of Beckett''s writing, with a focus on the changing functions and impact of this set of objects, and charts, chronologically and across media, the pattern of Beckett''s distinctive authorial procedure. The volume''s identification of the creative praxis that emerges as an ''art of salvage'' offers an integrated way of understanding Beckett''s writing, opens up new approaches to his work, and offers a fresh assessment of his importance and relevance today.Trade Review'… Beckett's art of salvaging, an art which Bates makes a compelling case for as crucial to his creative imagination, in her thorough, nuanced and highly readable monograph.' Liam Harrison, Dublin Review of BooksTable of Contents1. Relics; 2. Heirlooms; 3. Props; 4. Treasure; Conclusion: Beckett's art of salvage.

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Book SynopsisProvides fresh perspectives on the early modern public as an audience trained by theatre. Focusing on the period 1642–1660, it offers a new take on the public of the English Revolution and fills in important blanks in the history of the English stage for theatre and literary scholars and historians.Trade Review'… this well-written book is a [must-read] to anyone interested in early modern theatricality, the English public, the Interregnum and their interactions.' Sonja Kleij, English'… the arguments at the heart of Theatre and the English Public are convincing, and the book as a whole successfully reframes debates about the relationship between theater and its publics.' Gavin Hollis, Renaissance QuarterlyTable of ContentsPrologue: theatre, theatricality and the public in early modern England; 1. Styles of the stage: addressing the public in the post-reformation period; 2. From audience to public: theatre, theatricality and the people before the Civil Wars; 3. Public performances: strategies of theatricality during the interregnum; 4. Playing with prohibition: discourses of theatre during the interregnum; Epilogue: theatre and the English public beyond the Restoration.

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Book SynopsisBel-vedére; or The Garden of the Muses is an early modern printed commonplace book containing an anthology of nearly 4,500 short verse quotations arranged under topical headings. The book first appeared in 1600 and a second edition was published in 1610. It is of exceptional importance for the early historical reception of early modern authors such as William Shakespeare, Edmund Spenser, and Christopher Marlowe (whose verse it includes); for the late Elizabethan practice of commonplacing; for the rising status of English literature (including dramatic literature); and for early modern English canon formation. Until now the book has never been properly edited. This edition provides the first full analysis of the contents of Bel-vedére, presenting the text for today''s readers and filling an important gap in the study of early modern English literature.Trade Review'This meticulously edited volume, which has a splendidly substantial introduction, provides us with a window into late Elizabethan culture and its role in establishing the tradition of English literature.' Andrew Hadfield, The Times Literary Supplement'Erne and Singh … have done a wonderful job editing Bel-vedére, an important commonplace book originally published in 1600 …Their introduction is informative, the attributions of authorship for quotations are established through well-defined research in respected sources, and the appendixes aid the reader in the use and understanding of the book. This is an excellent and delightful scholarly work.' J. D. Sharpe, Choice'[Erne and Singh's] edition is an exemplary scholarly achievement in every way … this volume is a major contribution to Elizabethan literary history, beautifully produced by Cambridge University Press.' Brian Vickers, The Review of English Studies'this edition is an exemplary scholarly achievement in every way.' Brian Vickers, The Review of English StudiesTable of ContentsIntroduction; 1. Early modern commonplacing; 2. The Bodenham miscellanies; 3. The structure of Bel-vedére; 4. Identifying Bel-vedére's sources: from Thomas Park to Charles Crawford; 5. Identifying Bel-vedére's sources: the present edition; 6. The contents of Bel-vedére; 7. Textual introduction; A note on the text; A note on the annotation; List of authors and editions quoted in the annotation; Bel-vedére or The Garden of the Muses; Glossary notes; Textual notes; Appendix 1. Index of authors and texts quoted or adapted in Bel-vedére; Appendix 2. The paratext of the first edition of Bel-vedére (1600); Appendix 3. Origins of the source identifications of the passages in Bel-vedére; Appendix 4. Bel-vedére and England's Parnassus (1600); Index.

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Book SynopsisProviding an account of how Restoration plays were written, performed, printed, adapted and revived for modern audiences, this accessible and engaging book is of great interest to undergraduate and non-specialist readers of theatre studies, Restoration drama and English literature.Trade Review'In addition to discussions of a generous selection of plays, Roberts provides students with succinct, informative and well-paced accounts of the personnel and material circumstances of Restoration Theatre, including the actors, the managers, the theatres and the growth of print culture. There is much to admire here.' Derek Hughes, University of Aberdeen'[Roberts'] theatrical primer will be a welcome addition to any bookshelf for teachers of later seventeenth-century drama. The book's successive chapters cover almost every imaginable topic. … Roberts is particularly good at bridging his close readings of individual plays with the political, social, financial, commercial, managerial, and professional worlds these works circulated in, were shaped by, and shaped themselves.' Andrew Benjamin Bricker, Renaissance and ReformationTable of ContentsList of figures; Preface; 1. Regime change theatre; 2. The life cycle of the Restoration play; 3. Playwrights; 4. Companies; 5. Actors; 6. Playhouses; 7. Audiences and critics; 8. Texts and publishers; 9. Revivals and adaptations; Further reading; Timeline; Index.

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Book SynopsisBeckett''s Political Imagination charts unexplored territory: it investigates how Beckett''s bilingual texts re-imagine political history, and documents the conflicts and controversies through which Beckett''s political consciousness and affirmations were mediated. The book offers a startling account of Beckett''s work, tracing the many political causes that framed his writing, commitments, collaborations and friendships, from the Scottsboro Boys to the Black Panthers, from Irish communism to Spanish republicanism to Algerian nationalism, and from campaigns against Irish and British censorship to anti-Apartheid and international human rights movements. Emilie Morin reveals a very different writer, whose career and work were shaped by a unique exposure to international politics, an unconventional perspective on political action and secretive political engagements. The book will benefit students, researchers and readers who want to think about literary history in different ways and are iTrade Review'This book is a revolution in Beckett studies: one will speak of before and after Emilie Morin. Thanks to her skills at unearthing forgotten archives, a new Beckett emerges, not just a political Beckett, but also a writer whose art, steeped in politics, preoccupied by the burning issues of the moment, never forgets the ethical limits it sets to itself. Here is an indispensable guide for all Beckett lovers.' Jean-Michel Rabaté, University of Pennsylvania'It seemed for a long while that a book able to address the difficult question of Beckett's politics would, like Godot, never arrive. Emilie Morin's Beckett's Political Imagination offers a series of finely wrought and formidably well-researched reflections on the ways in which Beckett's work is woven into its rich political contexts. In doing so, it produces a definitive account of the texture and purchase of his political imagination, which will have a transformative impact on our understanding of Beckett's writing.' Peter Boxall, University of Sussex'A work of passion and truth, in which the forms and styles of Beckett's art are unerringly linked to his search for liberation. An audaciously social interpretation of this deeply personal writer.' Declan Kiberd, University of Notre Dame, Indiana'Rather than re-reading Beckett in conjunction with new theories of literary, political and theatrical import, we are better off exploring how Beckett leads us to an understanding and defiance of the brokenness of humanity and the short-comings of political ideas and contingent processes. Morin is an excellent guide to take us along this path. As she explains at the outset, defining Beckett's politics remains a perilous exercise, but I for one say that it is an exploration well worth undertaking.' David Cowan, Books Ireland (www.booksireland.org)'… the case is built by Morin's patient accumulation of telling details across two-hundred and fifty pages until finally the conclusion seems inescapable: Samuel Beckett was a political animal.' Anthony Roche, Dublin Review of Books'… Morin, in her richly illuminating study, shows more comprehensively than anyone else has the plain untruth of the notion of a Beckett who walked away from any political conversation. … Indeed, Morin's superbly researched book is so convincing in its meticulous recreation of Beckett's political worlds that it raises an entirely new question: why, given all of this immersion in oppression, propaganda, totalitarianism, colonialism, and racism, is Beckett's artistic work not more explicitly engaged?' Fintan O'Toole, The New York Review of Books'This reading of Beckett through political history helps clarify the enduring importance of his work … Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.' J. S. Baggett, ChoiceTable of ContentsIntroduction; 1. False starts: the 'material of experience' and the writing of history; 2. Another war entirely: internationalist politics and the labour of translation; 3. Aftermaths: the 'siege in the room' and the politics of testimony; 4. Turning points: torture, dissent and the Algerian War of Independence; Conclusion.

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Book SynopsisHow did Shakespeare''s plays sound when they were originally performed? How can we know, and could the original pronunciation ever be recreated? For three days, Shakespeare''s Globe presented a production of Romeo and Juliet in original, Shakespearian pronunciation. In an unusual blend of autobiography, narrative, and academic content, David Crystal recounts the unique nature of the experience. He begins by discussing the Globe Theatre''s approach to ''original practices'', which had dealt with all aspects of Elizabethan stagecraft - except pronunciation. A large section is devoted to the nature of the Early Modern English sound system. There are reports of how the actors coped with the task of learning the pronunciation, how it affected their performances and how the audiences reacted. In this new edition, he reflects on the development of the original pronunciation movement across the world, since the Globe''s experiment.Table of ContentsPrologue Tim Carroll; 1. Idea; 2. Proposal; 3. Evidence; 4. Rehearsal; 5. Performance; 6. Consequences; Epilogue; Afterlife.

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Book SynopsisFew subjects of the English stage have proved more alluring and enduring than religious conversion. The emergence of the Elizabethan theatre marked a profound shift in the way in which conversion was presented. If medieval drama had encouraged conversion without reservation, early Elizabethan plays started to question it. Considering over forty canonical and lesser known works, this study argues that more so than any other medium, early modern drama engaged with the question of the possibility of undergoing a radical transformation in faith and presented the period''s understanding of it as fundamentally unsettled. Offering the first cross-religious exploration of conversion in early modern English drama, and presenting a new reading of William Shakespeare''s tragedy Othello, Lieke Stelling reveals telling patterns in the stage''s treatment of conversion and religious identity.Trade Review'Religious Conversion in Early Modern English Drama offers a wonderfully controversial and compelling account of spiritual and interfaith conversions on the early modern English stage. Reading plays like Dr Faustus, The Renegado, Othello, and many others alongside sermons, pamphlets, travel writings, and personal narratives, Lieke Stelling enriches and updates our understanding of the confluence of religion and drama in the period. A wide variety of scholars will find this an important and engaging book.' Kurt Schreyer, University of Missouri, St Louis'Drawing on a wide range of canonical and non-canonical plays, Lieke Stelling makes a compelling case that the theatre is a central locus for debating religious conversion within and between religious faiths. This book will be of interest to scholars of early modern drama, but it should also be read by historians of the Reformation and of early modern religious identity more generally.' Adrian Streete, University of Glasgow'Lieke Stelling's Religious Conversion in Early Modern English Drama offers a welcome addition to the active field of early modern conversion studies by focusing on plays that dramatize religious conversion on the early modern English stage.' Holly Crawford Pickett, ReformationTable of ContentsPart I. Spiritual Conversion: 1. 'Be by me converted': medieval and reformation drama; 2. 'The whole summe of Christianitie': spiritual conversion in protestant sermons; 3. ''Twas I but 'tis not I': dramatic transformations of spiritual conversion; Part II. Interfaith Conversion: 4. 'More stable and perfect faith': religious diversification and the paradox of interfaith conversion; 5. 'False runagates' and 'superlunatical hypocrites': securing religious identity on the stage; 6. 'Most beautiful pagan; most sweet Jew': preserving Christianity in authentic conversions; 7. 'For Christian shame': Othello's assimilation into Venice.

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Book SynopsisSamuel Beckett and the Language of Subjectivity is the first sustained exploration of aporia as a vital, subversive, and productive figure within Beckett''s writing as it moves between prose and theatre. Informed by key developments in analytic and continental philosophies of language, Tubridy''s fluent analysis demonstrates how Beckett''s translations - between languages, genres, bodies, and genders - offer a way out of the impasse outlined in his early aesthetics. The primary modes of the self''s extension into the world are linguistic (speaking, listening) and material (engaging with bodies, spaces and objects). Yet what we mean by language has changed in the twenty-first century. Beckett''s concern with words must be read through the information economy in which contemporary identities are forged. Derval Tubridy provides the groundwork for new insights on Beckett in terms of the posthuman: the materialist, vitalist and relational subject cathected within differential mechanisms of power.Trade Review'… the book injects new energy into well-rehearsed debates, intervening in conversations on the primacy of gesture and rhythm in Beckett, on the correspondences between his experiments in drama and narrative, and on the irreducible distance between bodily existence and self-relation.' Ruben Borg, Journal of Modern LiteratureTable of ContentsIntroduction; 1. The old credentials; 2. This cursed first person; 3. No knowing not said; 4. Whom else; 5. Rare flickers; Conclusion.

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Book SynopsisEarly Shakespeare, 15881594 draws together leading scholars of text, performance, and theatre history to offer a rigorous re-appraisal of Shakespeare''s early career. The contributors offer rich new critical insights into the theatrical and poetic context in which Shakespeare first wrote and his emergence as an author of note, while challenging traditional readings of his beginnings in the burgeoning theatre industry. Shakespeare''s earliest works are treated on their own merit and in their own time without looking forward to Shakespeare''s later achievements; contributors situate Shakespeare, in his twenties, in a very specific time, place, and cultural moment. The volume features essays about Shakespeare''s early style, characterisation, and dramaturgy, together with analysis of his early co-authors, rivals, and influences (including Lyly, Spenser and Marlowe). This collection provides essential entry points to, and original readings of, the poet-dramatist''s earliest extant writings and shines new light on his first activities as a professional author.Trade Review'… a major reappraisal of Shakespeare's early career …' Dalya Alberge, The Observer'Early Shakespeare is a valuable, attentively edited volume … there is no doubt that this book will offer its readers considerable food for thought.' Gordon McMullan, Times Literary Supplement'… an engaging and far-reaching volume that instructively reappraises Shakespeare's early dramatic texts. …the book encourages a number of new discussions of 'earliness' including the importance of authorial collaboration, inter-textual borrowings, and acting traditions that distinguish Shakespeare's early style … a thought-provoking study.' Benjamin Blyth, Early Theatre Review'Like the previous volume, this collection will be of great interest to all readers of Shakespeare; it is required reading for Shakespeare scholars.' Ian Mcadam, Renaissance and ReformationTable of ContentsIntroduction. Beginning with Shakespeare Rory Loughnane and Andrew J. Power; 1. Shakespeare and the idea of early authorship Rory Loughnane; 2. Collaboration and Shakespeare's early career Will Sharpe; 3. The language and style of early Shakespeare Goran Stanivokuvic; 4. Shakespeare's early verse style: Titus Andronicus, Venus and Adonis, Arden of Faversham MacDonald P. Jackson; 5. Early Shakespeare, Chaucer, and narrative theory: Arden of Faversham and (the) Franklin's Tale Laurie Maguire; 6. Poetry, counsel and coercion in Shakespeare's early history plays Harriet Archer; 7. John Lyly and Shakespeare's early career Andy Kesson; 8. Spenser and Shakespeare: bards of a feather? Willy Maley; 9. Arden of Faversham, Richard Burbage, and the early Shakespeare canon Terri Bourus; 10. Boy parts in early Shakespeare Andrew J. Power; 11. The origins of Richard Duke of York John Jowett; 12. Early Shakespeare and the authorship of The Taming of the Shrew John V. Nance; 13. Who read what when? Gary Taylor; Appendices; Select bibliography; Index.

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Book Synopsis Previous surveys of the gay theatrical repertoire have concentrated on plays produced on Broadway or in London''s West End. This comprehensive guide goes well beyond these earlier studies by introducing productions from Off Broadway, from regional theaters in the U.S. and U.K., and from Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Also included are Puerto Rican, Indian and Filipino plays written in English, as well as translations from other languages. Well over half of the works discussed here appear for the first time in such a study.

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Book SynopsisThough critics and literary historians have always had to admit that Susanna Centlivre's comedies were extremely popular, they have tended to devote themselves to a search for evidence in them of supposed deficiencies of 'the female pen,' and to pay as much attention to the playwright's marriages and amorous liasons than to the plays themselves. Only in recent years has Centlivre come to be recognized quite straightforwardly as on of the most brilliant playwrights of her time.A Bold Stroke for a Wife is perhaps the finest example of Centlivre's masterful plotting of comic intrigue. The soldier Fainwell and Anne Lovely are in love, but their path to the altar is blocked by her guardians, each of whom has a different view of what sort of husband would make the right match. Fainwell resorts to disguises of social types. The play thus provides a wide range of opportunity for Centlivre to satirize Tory respectability, religious propriety and capitalist speculative greed—and to give voice to tolerance: 'tis liberty of choice that sweetens life.' Yet in the end it is Centlivre's comic muse that gives enduring life to the play as one of the most entertaining of eighteenth-century comedies.Trade ReviewThis edition is expertly contextualized—biographically, socially, politically, and historically—so that Centlivre's play is positioned as an important product of early eighteenth-century theatre and culture. Copeland's introduction is crisp, direct, and authoritative; the notes are thorough, thoughtful, and unobtrusive; and the biographical and critical appendices are welcome." - Susan Carlson, Iowa State UniversityTable of ContentsAcknowledgementsIntroductionLife, Career, and ReputationA Bold Stroke For A WifeNotesBibliographyA Note on the TextA Bold Stroke For A WifeDedicatonPrologueDramatis PersonaeAct IAct IIAct IIIAct IVAct VEpilogueTextual NotesAppendix: Selected Documents Biography Criticism Stockjobbing

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Book SynopsisDavid Garrick, the leading actor of his time, was also one of its most accomplished dramatists, and The Clandestine Marriage is perhaps his finest play. Its story centres on the household of a wealthy merchant, Mr. Sterling, whose main concern is that his two daughters marry men of wealth. Fanny has defied her apprentice; her sister Betsey is engaged to be married to Sir John Melvil. But Melvil and his friend Lord Ogleby both fall in love with Fanny. It is up to Lovewell to persuade both men that marriage to Fanny is out of the question—without revealing to them that he has already married her.The action of the play and also its setting (a landscape garden designed after the fashion of the time to provide artificial wildness and ‘commanding’ views) give ample scope for Garrick and Coleman to satirize the mercantile mind—yet the play’s comic spirit holds appeal to those on all points of the political compass. First produced in 1766, The Clandestine Marriage was revived to great acclaim in 1995 in a London production starring Nigel Hawthorne.Full-length plays of the late eighteenth century were usually performed together with short plays (or ‘afterpieces’) to form a full evening of entertainment. In accordance with that tradition this edition is completed by two of the most interesting examples of the genre: Charles Burney’s The Cunning-Man (which in fact was several times performed alongside The Clandestine Marriage during the 1766-67 season) and The Rehearsal; or Bayes in Petticoats by Catherine Clive (who played Mrs. Heidelberg in the original production of The Clandestine Marriage).Trade Review“This imaginative collection takes us to the London theatre c. 1766 for an ‘evening’s entertainment’ of sparkling comedies (a mainpiece and two afterpieces), with Chevalier as our knowledgeable and genial guide.” — Peter Sabor, McGill UniversityTable of ContentsPREFACEINTRODUCTIONAn Evening’s EntertainmentStage Tradition and the PastoralSources and Stage HistoriesBibliographyTHE CLANDESTINE MARRIAGEAdvertisementPrologueDramatis PersonaeAct IAct IIAct IIIAct IVAct VEpilogueTHE CUNNING-MANAdvertisementDramatis PersonaeAct IAct IITHE REHEARSAL, OR BAYES IN PETTICOATSAdvertisementPersonsAct IAct IITEXTUAL NOTESThe Clandestine MarriageThe Cunning-ManThe Rehearsl, of Bayes in PetticoatsAPPENDIX A: CONTEMPORARY REVIEWS The Clandestine Marriage The Cunning-Man APPENDIX B: NOTES ON THE ACTORS

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Book SynopsisBaillie’s eminently readable dramas stand at the crossroads of the Scottish Enlightenment and early Romanticism, and compellingly engage with questions of women’s rights. Her exploration of the passions, first published in 1798, is here reissued with a wealth of contextual materials including "The Introductory Discourse," Baillie’s own brand of feminist literary criticism. The three plays included here are "Count Basil: A Tragedy," and "The Tryal: A Comedy," which show love from opposing perspectives; and "De Monfort: A Tragedy," which explores the drama of hate. Among other appendices, the Broadview edition includes materials on the contemporary philosophical understanding of the passions, and contemporary reviews.Baillie’s work is enjoying a revival of interest. She lived a long life, (1762-1851), and had a wide circle of literary friends including Maria Edgeworth and Sir Walter Scott (who termed her a "female Shakespeare"). Scottish born, she moved to England in her twenties where she then resided. Her Plays on the Passions, alternatively known as A Series of Plays in which it is Attempted to Delineate the Stronger Passions of the Mind—Each Passion being the Subject of a Tragedy and Comedy was produced in three volumes between 1798 and 1812. The first volume created quite a stir amongst the literary circles of London and Edinburgh when introduced anonymously. The speculation into the authorship concluded two years later when Baillie came forward as the writer of the collection, thereby causing a subsequent sensation since no one had considered the shy spinster a candidate in the mystery.Trade Review“At a time when serious scholars are reevaluating the merit and impact of Joanna Baillie’s work, we finally have an annotated edition of her first volume of A Series of Plays. Sound research is impossible without authoritative primary texts, and Peter Duthie provides judicious editing, pertinent annotations and important philosophical explanations to make this Baillie edition useful for researchers and general readers alike.” — Judith Bailey Slagle, editor of The Collected Letters of Joanna Baillie“Peter Duthie has given teachers of romanticism and theater a gift; this elegant, accessible, and carefully contextualized edition of Joanna Baillie’s earliest plays is an invaluable resource for demonstrating the centrality of Baillie’s dramas to eighteenth- and nineteenth-century debates about women and performance, morality and the mind.” — Catherine Burroughs, Wells CollegeTable of ContentsAcknowledgementsIntroductionJoanna Baillie: A Brief ChronologyA Note on the Text Introductory DiscourseCount Basil: A TragedyThe Tryal: A ComedyDe Monfort: A Tragedy Appendix A: The Moral Writers John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690) David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature (1739-40) Edmund Burke, A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful (1757) Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759) Dugald Stewart, Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind (1792) Appendix B: Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) [On soldiers, professions, and masculine corruption] [On the tyranny of the sexes] Appendix C: Prologue and Epilogue to the Tragedy of De Montfort from the Larpent VersionAppendix D: William Wordsworth “Preface” to Lyrical Ballads (1800) From Lyrical Ballads Vol. 2 (1800) Appendix E: Contemporary Reviews Literary Leisure I (Jan. 1800) Edinburgh Review 4 (July 1803) Imperial Review I (March 1804) Dramatic Censor (April-May 1800) Works Cited/Recommended Reading

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Book SynopsisDepicting with shocking openness the sexual and political violence of its central characters' fates, Edward the Second broke new dramatic ground in English theatre. The play charts the tragic rise and fall of the medieval English monarch Edward the Second, his favourite Piers Gaveston, and their ambitious opponents Queen Isabella and Mortimer Jr., and is an important cultural, as well as dramatic, document of the early modern period.This modernized and fully annotated Broadview Edition is prefaced by a critical but student-oriented introduction and followed by ample appendix material, including extended selections from Marlowe's historical sources, texts bearing on the play's complex sexual and political dynamics, and excerpts from contemporary poet Michael Drayton's epic rendition of Edward the Second's reign.Trade Review“This is a first-rate edition of an increasingly important play. Mathew Martin’s editing of the quarto text of Edward the Second is detailed and thoughtful, with copious, insightful annotations, and his critical introduction lucidly explores the play’s theatrical contexts, historiographical concerns, and thematic imperatives. The extensive appendices that conclude the volume are invaluable for understanding the larger historical, political, and sexual contexts of the work. All in all, this is an edition that will greatly benefit both the student reader and the experienced scholar.” — Ian Munro, University of California, Irvine“Mathew Martin’s new edition of Edward the Second will serve well the needs of students. The introduction contains a succinct and helpful summary of the pertinent aspects of Marlowe’s life and of the practical concerns of the Elizabethan stage, details the reign of the historical Edward II, and considers early modern and postmodern evaluations of “sodomitical” relationships. Appendices offer important cultural contexts, including passages from Marlowe’s historical sources in Holinshed and Stow, Michael Drayton’s very different poetic account of Edward’s reign, a selection of early modern versions of the tradition of amity (or friendship between men), and Renaissance legal and moral descriptions of sodomy.” — Ian McAdam, University of LethbridgeTable of ContentsAcknowledgementsIntroductionChristopher Marlowe: A Brief Chronology of His Life and TimesA Note on the TextEdward the SecondAppendix A: Marlowe’s Historical Sources From Raphael Holinshed, The Third Volume of Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1587) From John Stow, The Annals of England (1592) Appendix B: From Michael Drayton, Mortimeriados (1596)Appendix C: The Diana-Actæon Myth From Arthur Golding, The XV Books of P. Ovidius Naso (1567) Sonnet V of Samuel Daniel’s Sonnet Sequence Delia (1592) Appendix D: On Friendship Thomas Elyot, “The True Description of Amity or Friendship” (1580) From Francis Bacon, “Of Friendship” (1625) From Richard Barnfield, “The Tears of an Affectionate Shepherd Sick for Love or The Complaint of Daphnis for the Love of Ganymede” (1594) Appendix E: Sodomy “An Act for the Punishment of the Vice of Buggerie” (1587) Edward Coke, “Of Buggery, or Sodomy” (1644) From Philip Stubbes, The Anatomy of Abuses (1583) From Thomas Beard, The Theatre of God’s Judgements (1597) Appendix F: Kings and Tyrants From An Homily against Disobedience and Wilful Rebellion (1570) From Hugh Languet, Vindiciae contra Tyrannos: A Defence of Liberty against Tyrants (1648) From James I of England and VI of Scotland, The True Law of Free Monarchies (1603) Works Cited and Further Reading

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Book SynopsisFirst performed by Shakespeare’s rivals in the 1590s, Christopher Marlowe’s The Jew of Malta was a trend-setting, innovative play whose black comedy and final tragic irony illuminate the darker regions of the Elizabethan cultural imagination. Although Jews were banished from England in 1291, the Jew in the form of Barabas, the play’s protagonist, returns on the stage to embody and to challenge the dramatic and cultural anti-Semitic stereotypes out of which he is constructed. The result is a theatrically sophisticated but deeply unsettling play whose rich cultural significance extends beyond the early modern period to the present day.The introduction and historical documents in this edition provide a rich context for the world of the play’s composition and production, including materials on Jewishness and anti-Semitism, the political struggles over Malta, and Christopher Marlowe’s personal and political reputation.Trade Review“The great strength of Mathew Martin’s edition is the ease of access it gives scholars and students to one of Marlowe’s strangest and most disturbing plays. He achieves this not simply by exemplary annotations, but by framing Marlowe’s text within an introduction and richly informative appendices that place the play securely in its contemporary social, cultural, and political contexts, enabling readers to negotiate complexities of tone and racial attitudes with subtle insight. The effect is precisely to highlight the daring originality of Marlowe’s dramatic artistry and his exacting control of both the arts of performance and his audience’s responses.” — Richard Allen Cave, Emeritus Professor of Drama and Theatre Arts, Royal Holloway, University of London“The Jew of Malta is one of early modern England’s most controversial plays on its most controversial topic—the collision of world religions. Martin’s terrific new edition brilliantly captures the gist of its cut-and-thrust. The introduction offers readers a sophisticated entrée into Anglo-Ottoman relations, European anti-Semitism, theatre history, and Machiavellianism. The edition is elegantly edited, with many resources for readers who want to understand one of Marlowe’s greatest plays in its historical milieu.” — Alan Shepard, President of Concordia UniversityTable of ContentsAcknowledgementsIntroductionChristopher Marlowe: A Brief Chronology of His Life and TimesA Note on the TextThe Jew of MaltaAppendix A: Jewishness in Marlowe’s England From John Foxe, Acts and Monuments (1610) [The destruction of the Jews in 73 CE] [Hugh of Lincoln and other stories] From Raphael Holinshed, The Third Volume of Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland (1587) [London Jews executed for counterfeiting and debasing coins in 1278] [The expulsion of the Jews from England in 1290] From Thomas Nashe, The Unfortunate Traveller (1594) From Geoffrey Chaucer, “The Prioress’s Tale,” The Canterbury Tales (1602) From “An homily for Good Friday, concerning the death and passion of our Saviour Jesus Christ,” in The Second Tome of Homilies (1563) From Robert Wilson, The Three Ladies of London (1584) [Mercadorus is confronted by Gerontus, to whom he owes money] [Arrested, Mercadorus is brought before the Judge of Turkey] From Sir Thomas Browne, “Of the Jews,” Pseudodoxia Epidemica (1646) Appendix B: Rhodes, Malta, and European-OttomanRelations From Nicholas Nicholay, The Navigations, peregrinations and voyages, made into Turkey by Nicholas Nicholay (1585) From Richard Knolles, The General History of the Turks (1603) [Preparation for the siege of Malta begins] [The Turks take Saint Elmo] [The Turkish forces leave Malta] From A Form to be used in Common prayer … to excite and stir all godly people to pray unto God for the preservation of those Christians and their Countries that are now invaded by the Turk in Hungary or elsewhere (1566) From Richard Hakluyt, The Principle Navigations, Voyages, and Discoveries of the English Nation (1589) [“The letters sent from the Imperial Musulmanlike highness of Sultan Murad Khan to the sacred regal Majesty of Elizabeth Queen of England”] [“The answer of her Majesty to the aforesaid letters of the Great Turk”] Appendix C: Machiavellianism From Innocent Gentillet, A Discourse Upon the Means of Well Governing and Maintaining in Good Peace aKingdom, or Other Principality … Against Nicholas Machiavel the Florentine (1602) [From “A Preface to the first Part”] [From Gentillet’s refutation of Machiavelli’s firstmaxim of religion] [From Gentillet’s refutation of Machiavelli’s twentyfirstmaxim of policy] [The maxims] From Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince (1640) [Edward Dacres’s “Epistle to the Reader”] [Chapter XV, “Of those things in respect whereof men, and especially princes, are praised or dispraised”] [From Chapter XVIII, “In what manner princes ought to keep their words”] [Chapter XXV, “How great power Fortune hath in human affairs, and what means there is to resist it”] Appendix D: Marlowe’s Reputation From Robert Greene, Perimedes the Blacksmith (1588) and A Groatsworth of Wit (1592) [From Perimedes the Blacksmith] [From A Groatsworth of Wit] Thomas Kyd’s letters to Sir John Puckering about Marlowe Richard Baines, “A note containing the opinion of Christopher Marlowe concerning his damnable Judgment of religion and scorn of God’s word” From Thomas Beard, The Theatre of God’s Judgements (1597) Works Cited and Further Reading

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Book SynopsisRichard Brinsley Sheridan’s last play, an adaptation of August Von Kotzebue’s Die Spanier set in Peru and first performed in 1799, was one of the most popular of the entire century. Set during the Spanish Conquest of Peru, Pizarro dramatized English fears of invasion by Revolutionary France, but it is also surprisingly and critically engaged with Britain’s colonial exploits abroad. Pizarro is a play of firsts: the first use of music alongside action, the first collapsing set, the first production to inspire such celebratory ephemera as cartoons, portraits, postcards, even porcelain collector plates. Pizarro marks the end of eighteenth-century drama and the birth of a new theatrical culture.This edition features a comprehensive introduction and extensive appendices documenting the play’s first successful performances and global influence. It will appeal to students and scholars of Romantic literature, theatre history, post-colonialism, and Indigenous studies.Trade Review“This exemplary edition of Sheridan’s spectacular melodrama demonstrates how the play made history in multiple ways—theatrically, technically, nationally, and imperially. The editors expertly bring together source materials and stage history to revivify the original context of the play, its production, and its reception.” — Joseph Roach, Sterling Professor of Theater, Yale University“The new Broadview edition of Pizarro has thus the great merit of helping a modern-day readership to rediscover this classic hit of Romantic drama through an innovative commentary and appendices, including a wide selection of historical sources on the invasion of Peru and dramatical testimonies of the invasion of the Americas by the Spanish, along with contemporary reviews and criticism resulting from the play’s representation. This edition demonstrates once again that English Romantic drama, even when adapted from already existing texts, possessed an innovative momentum that can be recognized at different levels: technical, theatrical, and, last but not least, political.” — Carlotta Farese, European Romantic ReviewTable of ContentsList of IllustrationsAcknowledgementsIntroductionRichard Brinsley Sheridan and Pizarro: A Brief ChronologyA Note on the TextPizarro: A Tragedy in Five ActsAppendix A: Deleted “Diego” SceneFrom Sheridan’s Original Manuscript Draft Adapted fromGerman TranslationAppendix B: Historical Sources on the Spanish Conquest ofPeru From Bartolomeo de Las Casas, Tears of the Indians (1656) From Abbé Guillaume Thomas François Raynal, A Philosophical and Political History of the Settlements and Trade of the Europeans in the East and West Indies (1770) From Jean-François Marmontel, The Incas: or, the Destruction of the Empire of Peru (1777) From William Robertson, The History of America (1777) Appendix C: The Spanish Invasion of Peru in British Theatre From William Davenant, The Cruelty of the Spaniards in Peru (1658) From John Thelwall, The Incas, or The Peruvian Virgin (1792) From Thomas Morton, Columbus, or, A World Discovered, an historical play (1792) Appendix D: Reviews of the First Production of Pizarro From “Theatre,” Morning Chronicle (25 May 1799) From “PIZARRO,” Morning Post and Gazetteer (25 May 1799) From “Theatre—Drury Lane,” General Evening Post (25 May 1799) From “Theatre,” Evening Mail (27 May 1799) From Account of Royal Command Performance, The Star (6 June 1799) From “The Theatre,” True Briton (6 June 1799) Appendix E: Critiques of Pizarro From [William Gifford], “Remarks on Kotzebue’s Pizarro,” The Anti-Jacobin Review (1799) From A Critique of the Tragedy of Pizarro (1799) From Samuel Bardsley, Critical Remarks on Pizarro (1800) From John Britton, Sheridan and Kotzebue … (1799) From “Mr. Sheridan,” Public Characters of 1799–1800 (1799) From [Frederic Reynolds], “Some Account of a Dreadful Disease Called the Kotzebue-Mania,” The Oracle Appendix F: Sheridan’s Speeches, Rolla’s Address, and the Address to the People From “Proceedings against Warren Hastings” (1788) From “Union of Ireland with Great Britain” (23 January 1799) “Mr. Sheridan’s Pizarro,” The Monthly Mirror (January 1800) Sheridan’s Address to the People (1803) From William Cobbett, “Letter IV,” Political Proteus (1804) Works Cited and Select Bibliography

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Book SynopsisMary Elizabeth Braddon’s shocking and suspenseful novel Lady Audley’s Secret was one of the most popular examples of the “sensation fiction” craze of the 1860s. Within a year of the novel appearing in book form, no less than three theatrical adaptations appeared on the London stage. Braddon took strong issue with two of these, but she approved of the adaptation by Robert Walters (writing under the pseudonym “George Roberts”); this edition presents that version, which enjoyed a two season run at the Royal St. James Theatre. Entertaining in itself, the play also provides a fascinating example of how the suspense and the powerful characterizations of sensation fiction were heightened still further for the stage.Together with the annotated text of the play itself, this edition includes an introduction addressing the life and work of Mary Elizabeth Braddon and placing Lady Audley’s Secret: A Drama in Two Acts in the context of the sensation fiction phenomenon. Appendices include a substantial selection of reviews of Lady Audley’s Secret—of the novel as well as of its dramatic adaptations—as well as a selection from the novel for comparison with the play.Trade Review“This edition of George Roberts’s version of Lady Audley’s Secret makes available for the first time the version performed at the St. James’s Theatre. It comes with a useful introduction, comparative analysis of the play and the novel, and a cross-section of reviews, both of the novel and of this particular dramatization. The annotations are generally very helpful. … [and the edition includes] some invaluable background resources.” — Jim Davis, University of WarwickTable of ContentsIntroductionSensation NovelsLady Audley’s Secret on the StageLady Audley’s Secret: A Drama in Two ActsIn Context Differences between Braddon’s Novel and Roberts’s Play from Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Lady Audley’s Secret (1861–62) Reviews of Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s Lady Audley’s Secret “Lady Audley’s Secret,” The Times (18 November 1862) Review of Lady Audley’s Secret, The Spectator 1791 (1862) Review of Lady Audley’s Secret, The Critic 25.631 (December 1862) Review of Lady Audley’s Secret, The Rose, the Shamrock and the Thistle 2 (November 1862) from “Our Female Sensation Novelists,” Christian Remembrancer 46 (1863) from H.L. Mansel, “Sensation Novels,” Quarterly Review 113 (April 1863) Reviews of George Roberts’s Lady Audley’s Secret “‘Lady Audley’ on the Stage,” The London Review 6.140 (7 March 1863) “St. James’s Theatre,” The Rose, the Shamrock and the Thistle 2 (April 1863) from “The Theatres,” Musical World 41.11 (14 March 1863)

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Book SynopsisTamburlaine the Great, Part One and Part Two are the first plays that Christopher Marlowe wrote for London’s then new freestanding, open-air public playhouses. They trace the progress of Tamburlaine, a Central Asian leader, as he “scourge[s] kingdoms with his conquering sword” and rises to imperial power. The plays were a powerful beginning to Marlowe’s brief career as a public theatre dramatist: the brutally masculine and martial main character immediately captured audiences, and the plays were widely imitated and parodied. Even four hundred years later, Marlowe’s Tamburlaine remains a shocking and seductive figure.The introduction and historical appendices to this new Broadview Edition provide many avenues for readers to understand these plays, presenting other portrayals of Islam from the period, related lives of Tamburlaine from other writers, and material on Marlowe’s scandalous reputation.Trade Review“Mathew R. Martin’s edition of Christopher Marlowe’s Tamburlaine the Great, Part One and Part Two has everything one needs to ensure these powerful plays come alive in the undergraduate classroom: a clear and wonderfully annotated text, a lively yet erudite introduction, and a treasure trove of contextual materials. While other editions routinely refer students to key historical documents such as the Richard Baines letter, this edition offers a wealth of materials that can open the door to a sophisticated understanding of Marlowe’s appeal. In addition to sources attesting to Marlowe’s outsized reputation even in his day, the edition includes materials that will help students grasp the complexity of these dramas, such as early accounts of the historical Temur and a well-chosen archive of documents revealing early modern English views of Islam. Supplementing such historical documents is a brilliant collection of literary ‘intertexts’—excerpts from Jonson, Middleton, and others that will help students understand both Marlowe’s trailblazing aesthetic sensibility and the plays’ extraordinary afterlife. This is a first-rate edition and I very much look forward to using it in the classroom.” — Patricia Cahill, Emory University“Christopher Marlowe’s Tamburlaine plays had a profound impact on the literary and dramatic culture of Elizabethan England. Mathew R. Martin’s new edition draws upon a wide range of recent scholarship, and the editor’s own extensive research, to recover the forms of that initial impact. Martin’s detailed introduction presents us with the awe-inspiring conqueror in all his bloody pomp and glorious contradictions: a Scythian warlord who came to embody a particularly English sense of the world. In this edition Martin boldly overturns editorial convention to make the third Octavo edition of 1597 his copytext, with striking and provocative results. The combination of an expansive introduction, rigorous textual scholarship and careful collation, and a thorough and varied collection of primary-source appendices makes this a valuable and engaging edition, worthy of Marlowe’s extraordinary creation.” — Matthew Dimmock, University of Sussex“Matthew R. Martin has prepared a solid undergraduate-level edition of Marlowe’s Tamburlaine the Great: Part One and Part Two for Broadview Press. In addition to a comprehensive introduction, Martin provides appendices that include a selection of documents concerning early modern perceptions of Islam and the East.” — Kevin Curran, Studies in English Literature 1500-1900Table of Contents Acknowledgements Introduction Christopher Marlowe: A Brief Chronology A Note on the Text Tamburlaine the Great, Parts One and Two Appendix A: Lives of Tamburlaine 1. From George Whetstone, The English Mirror (1586) 2. From John Foxe, Acts and Monuments (1610) 3. From Richard Knolles, The General History of the Turks (1603) 4. Jean Dubec-Crespin, The History of the Great Emperor Tamerlan (1597) Appendix B: Early Modern English Representations of Islam 1. From George Whetstone, The English Mirror (1586) 2. From Anonymous, Sir Bevis of Hampton (1585) 3. From Giles Fletcher, The Policy of the Turkish Empire (1597) Appendix C: Literary Intertexts 1. From Robert Greene, Perimedes the Blacksmith (1588) 2. Christopher Marlowe, ""The Passionate Shepherd to His Love,"" in England's Helicon (1600) 3. From Joseph Hall, Virgidemiarum (1597) 4. From Ben Jonson, Timber; or, Discoveries, in The Works of Benjamin Jonson (1641) 5. From Anonymous, The Troublesome Reign of John King of England (1591) 6. From Thomas Dekker, Old Fortunatus (1600) 7. From Thomas Middleton, The Triumphs of Integrity (1623) 8. From Thomas Nashe, Christ's Tears over Jerusalem (1613) 9. From Thomas Dekker, The Wonderful Year (1603) Appendix D: Marlowe's Reputation 1. From Robert Greene, A Groatsworth of Wit (1592) 2. Thomas Kyd's Two Letters concerning His Arrest and Interrogation Regarding the Dutch Church Libel and Marlowe's Atheism 3. Richard Baines, "A Note Containing the Opinion of Christopher Marlowe concerning His Damnable Judgment of Religion and Scorn of God's Word" 4. From Thomas Beard, The Theatre of God's Judgements (1597) Select Bibliography

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Book SynopsisRegarded by Bernard Shaw as a master of the theatre, Dion Boucicault was arguably the most important figure in drama in North America and in Britain during the second half of the nineteenth century. He was largely forgotten during the twentieth century—though he continued to influence popular culture (the iconic image of a woman tied to railway tracks as a train rushes towards her, for example, originates in a Boucicault melodrama). In the twenty-first century the gripping nature of his plays is being discovered afresh; when The Octoroon was produced as a BBC Radio play in 2012, director and playwright Mark Ravenhill described Boucicault’s dramas as “the precursors to Hollywood cinema.”In The Octoroon—the most controversial play of his career—Boucicault addresses the sensitive topic of race and slavery. George Peyton inherits a plantation, and falls in love with an octoroon—a person one-eighth African American, and thus, in 1859 Louisiana, legally a slave. The Octoroon opened in 1859 in New York City, just two years prior to the American Civil War, and created a sensation—as it did in its subsequent British production.This new edition includes a wide range of background contextual materials, an informative introduction, and extensive annotation.Trade Review“With this useful edition, my students can for the first time read a range of documents, brought together in one edition, recounting the drama’s staging and reception. By including reviews, descriptions of performances, and other contextualizing texts, editor Sarika Bose situates Boucicault’s drama in the transatlantic theatre and literary histories to which it rightly belongs and within which it should be read.” — Theresa Gaul, Texas Christian University“This new edition of The Octoroon contains valuable background information about Dion Boucicault and his career as a dramatist as well as apt selections from his letters. … Other enhancements, which include illustrations of playbills and related sheet music, demonstrate this drama’s popularity, while a judicious selection of reviews and letters to the editor of American and British periodicals show the audience and critics in written conversation with Boucicault about the play’s ending, which Boucicault himself described as ‘composed by the Public, and edited by the Author.’” — Nicole Tonkovich, University of California, San Diego“I have been teaching The Octoroon for years, and am so excited to turn from the Xeroxed piles of supplementary material to this thorough and informative edition that collects everything in one place and provides a rich context for Boucicault’s important work. This edition, with its careful recounting of the play’s alternative endings, supplies a framework for reading The Octoroon in terms of theatre history, transatlantic studies, and the global history of slavery.” — Helena Michie, Rice UniversityTable of Contents Acknowledgements Introduction The Octoroon Appendix A: American Reviews and Commentaries Appendix B: British Reviews and Commentaries Appendix C: Letters to Editors Concerning Lawsuit Appendix D: Boucicault's Letters to Editors Concerning the Play's Subject Matter Appendix E: Alternative Endings Appendix F: Documents Concerning Slavery Works Cited and Recommended Reading

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Book SynopsisAlthough other Shakespeare plays offer higher body counts, more gore, and more plentiful scenes of heartbreak, Othello packs an unusually powerful affective punch, stunning us with its depiction of the swiftness and thoroughness with which love can be converted to hatred, and forcing us to confront our complicity with social and political institutions that can put all of us—but especially the most vulnerable among us—at risk.This edition features a variety of interleaved materials—from facsimile pages and musical scores to illustrations and extended discussions of myth and folklore—that provide a context for the social and cultural allusions in the play. Appendices offer excerpts from Shakespeare’s key sources and historical materials on marriage, jealousy, and the treatment of people of African descent in Elizabethan England.A collaboration between Broadview Press and the Internet Shakespeare Editions project at the University of Victoria, the editions developed for this series have been comprehensively annotated and draw on the authoritative texts newly edited for the ISE. This innovative series allows readers to access extensive and reliable online resources linked to the print edition.Trade Review“The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice has found here its ideal edition for our times. In addition to Jessica Slight’s unfussy and accessible text, the Broadview/Internet Shakespeare Edition offers an up-to-date selection of images, sources, analogs, and historical readings, many of them not seen before in connection with Othello. Race, ethnicity, sexuality, religion, household governance, and early modern psychology receive broad and deep attention, inviting readers to encounter Shakespeare’s play in strikingly contemporary terms.” — Bruce R. Smith, University of Southern CaliforniaTable of ContentsFOREWORDACKNOWLEDGEMENTSINTRODUCTIONSHAKESPEARE’S LIFESHAKESPEARE’S THEATERWILLIAM SHAKESPEARE AND OTHELLOA BRIEF CHRONOLOGYTHE DATE OF THE PLAYA NOTE ON THE TEXTTHE TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO, THE MOOR OF VENICEAPPENDIX A: SOURCES AND EARLY ANALOGS From Cinthio, Gli Heccatommithi (1565) From Geoffrey Fenton, Certain Tragical Discourses (1567) From George Peele, The Battle of Alcazar (1588–89) From Robert Greene, Selimus (1594) From William Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus (1594) From William Shakespeare, Shakespeare’s Sonnets, Sonnets 57 and 58 (1609) From Thomas Coryate, Coryats Crudities (1611) From Maurice G. Dowling, Othello Travestie (1836) APPENDIX B: CULTURAL CONTEXTS Prayers for Protection against Ottoman Attacks a. A form to be used in common prayer (1565)b. Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury, A form to be used in common prayer (1566) Elizabeth I, Letters Permitting Deportation of Blackamoors from England (1596–97) a. 11 July 1596b. 18 July 1596 From Robert Cleaver, A Godly Form of Household Government for the Ordering of Private Families (1598) From Thomas Wright, The Passions of the Mind in General (1604) From Ste[phen?] B., Counsel to the Husband: To the Wife Instruction (1608) From Nicholas Coeffeteau, “Of Jealousy, Whether it Be an Effect and Sign of Love” (1621) WORKS CITED AND BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Book SynopsisThe York Corpus Christi Play as we know it consists of 47 surviving individual plays or “pageants,” 27 of which are included in this volume. (The whole is always referred to in the singular, following the usage of medieval York itself.) This cycle of plays was produced by the York civic government and its occupational guilds—called “crafts”—and performed annually for nearly 200 years on Corpus Christi day, a mid-summer feast with a movable date that could fall between May 23 and June 24. The York Corpus Christi play is the only extant and complete cycle of plays performed on Corpus Christi day in England throughout the play's life. The earliest record we have of the York play is from 1376; the last performance until the 20th century was in 1569. Together these 27 plays represent the cycle’s core narrative of creation, fall, and salvation. In addition to 27 of the pageants, this new edition includes extensive annotation (both marginal glosses and explanatory footnotes), a wide-ranging introduction, and a helpful selection of background contextual materials.Trade Review“Fitzgerald has made the York Corpus Christi Play accessible to students in a way that it has never been before. She provides an instructive and incisive overview of the play’s complex performance history, spanning from the fourteenth century to the present day. The pageants’ straightforward introductions and modernized spellings open them up to a broader audience of students who will undoubtedly enjoy analyzing and performing these foundational works of English drama.” — Kimberly Fonzo, The University of Texas at San Antonio“Christina M. Fitzgerald’s new edition of the York Plays will be a very valuable resource for teachers, students, and performers of early English drama. The volume features a well-chosen, expansive selection of pageants, including several important episodes anthologized for the first time. Combining well-edited texts and judicious annotations with key contemporary documents and images, Fitzgerald’s edition offers a richly explanatory introduction to one of England’s longest-lasting, most culturally significant performance traditions.” — Nicole R. Rice, St. John’s University“This useful textbook for the undergraduate classroom (or non-specialist) offers essential contextual material, ample footnotes, and adept glossing to assist students in discovering the complexity of the York Cycle. The play selection is intelligent and responsive to current critical trends. In addition, the lucid, up-to-date introduction and pageant notes set the Cycle in the context of urban lay devotion, facilitating deeper understanding of one of the most significant literary and cultural phenomena of the later Middle Ages. No doubt this will become the standard classroom edition.” — Margaret Aziza Pappano, Queen’s University “The York Corpus Christi Play offers students and scholars an outstanding overview of York’s social, economic, and literary past. Lucidly written, it situates the cultural complexity of York’s dramatic productions as both medieval and early modern phenomena. Fitzgerald’s judicious selection of plays maintains the feel for the original cycle, as she routinely edits them with an eye towards detail. She also glosses unfamiliar words and concepts, while providing content-rich headnotes to each play. An invaluable resource, the headnotes provide readers with comprehensive, relevant background information on theme, structure, and context, yet they don’t spoil the plays! This edition makes the York Corpus Christi plays accessible to a wide range of students in both literary studies and theater programs.” — Ann Hubert, St. Lawrence University “The Broadview Lucifer boasts, ‘I feel me featous and fair’ — here, and throughout this eminently teachable edition, Fitzgerald maintains York’s distinctive rhythm and diction, updating the spelling just enough so that undergraduates at all levels will quickly understand the words’ meaning (with the help of thoughtful glosses) while still feeling the poetry’s rap-battle bombast (and, later, its rich working-class pathos). Throughout, introductory material lays down key fundamentals (form, content, context, performance) for each pageant, providing built-in lecture notes and provocations for close reading. Traditional literary, religious, and archivally-based readings are well-represented here, but sharpened and updated toward use in woke twenty-first-century classrooms (Fitzgerald’s impressive prior scholarship on gender leaves many visible marks). Culminating in an enjoyable multimedia array of contextual materials, this edition is truly featous (elegant, neat, handsome, and cleverly fashioned), and certainly fair (not only pleasing to the eye, but also even-handed in its scholarship and implicit pedagogy).” — Matthew Sergi, University of Toronto, St. George Campus “Christina Fitzgerald provides an accessible edition, rich with supplementary materials, that is sure to be an immediate success with teachers of medieval drama. … With its balancing of an accessible text with a rich variety of resources for understanding the York Play's cultural contexts and history of performance, this convenient and thoughtfully put together book will undoubtedly become the new standard classroom edition of the York Play.” — Emma Lipton, The Medieval ReviewTable of Contents Introduction The York Corpus Christi Play: Selected Pageants The Barkers Pageant 1: The Creation of the Angels and the Fall of Lucifer The Plasterers Pageant 2: The Creation The Coopers Pageant 5: The Fall of Adam and Eve The Shipwrights Pageant 8: The Building of the Ark The Fishers and Mariners Pageant 9: The Flood The Parchmentmakers and Bookbinders Pageant 10: Abraham and Isaac The Hosiers Pageant 11: Moses and Pharaoh The Spicers Pageant 12: The Annunciation and Visitation The Pewterers and Founders Pageant 13: Joseph's Trouble About Mary The Tilethatchers Pageant 14: The Nativity The Chandlers Pageant 15: The Shepherds The Masons; The Goldsmiths Pageant 16: Herod and the Magi; The Offering of the Magi The Girdlers and Nailers Pageant 19: The Slaughter of the Innocents The Capmakers Pageant 24: The Woman Taken in Adultery and the Raising of Lazarus The Skinners Pageant 25: The Entry into Jerusalem The Bowers and Fletchers Pageant 29: Christ Before Annas and Caiaphas The Tapiters and Couchers Pageant 30: The First Trial Before Pilate: The Dream of Pilate’s Wife The Litsters Pageant 31: The Trial Before Herod The Tilemakers Pageant 33: The Second Trial Before Pilate: The Judgment The Pinners Pageant 35: The Crucifixion The Butchers Pageant 36: The Death of Christ The Saddlers Pageant 37: The Harrowing of Hell The Carpenters Pageant 38: The Resurrection The Winedrawers Pageant 39: Christ's Appearance to Mary Magdalene The Drapers Pageant 44: The Death of Mary The Weavers Pageant 45: The Assumption of Mary The Mercers Pageant 47: The Last Judgment In Context Four Middle English Crucifixion Poems (c. 1340-1400) “Ye that passen by the way” “Men rent me on rood” “Stand well, Mother, under rood” “I sike when I sing” Select Civic and Guild Records From the Mercers' Pageant Accounts (1462) From the City Chamberlains’ Rolls: Account of Receipts for Station Placement (1462) An Ordinance of the Tanners (1476) From the City Council Minutes: Two Judgments Concerning Pageant Costs (1517) Manuscript Images Page from the Tile Thatchers’ Nativity Page from the Girdlers’ and Nailers’ Slaughter of the Innocents Page from the Pinners’ Crucifixion Other Images Holkham Bible: Adam and Eve Bedford Hours: Noah Building the Ark Canterbury Psalter: Scenes from Christ’s infancy Holkham Bible: Crucifixion Gough Psalter: The Harrowing of Hell

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Book SynopsisThis Broadview Edition of Robert Greene’s Selimus is the first single-volume, modernized edition of this underrated dramatic gem in over a century. First published in 1594, the play grippingly stages the bloody fratricidal warfare inaugurating the reign of Selim I (1512-20) as emperor of the Ottoman Empire. Contributing to the expansion of the range of readily available non-Shakespearean early modern English plays, the edition is designed for scholars and students alike, in the study, classroom, or theatre. The critically edited text of the play is accompanied by a full introduction, comprehensive annotations, and ample contextual material from the early modern period, including Greene’s pamphlet Greene’s Groatsworth of Wit.Trade Review“Having masterfully edited Marlowe’s original for Broadview, Mathew R. Martin now turns his attention to Selimus, one of the so-called ‘Sons of Tamburlaine.’ Martin’s judicious notes, commentary, and appendices ensure that students and scholars alike can make sense of the play’s complex web of Machiavellian intrigue, its engagement with contemporary anxieties about atheism, Islam, and empire, and its place in the repertory of the Queen’s Men.” — Brett Greatley-Hirsch, University of Leeds“This fine, user-friendly edition does a terrific job of contextualizing and explaining the play, showing its place in Elizabethan theatrical culture and making it newly accessible to readers. It reveals Selimus as not just blood and thunder but also an important document in the history of both Western perceptions of Islam and the emergence of atheism and Machiavellianism as philosophical positions.” — Lisa Hopkins, Sheffield Hallam University“This edition of Selimus gives us a provocative follow-up to Mathew Martin’s earlier editorial work on The Jew of Malta and Tamburlaine the Great. With an informative introduction and a wealth of detailed annotations, Martin alerts readers to the play’s essential socio-political and cultural contexts, especially those having to do with atheism and with Anglo-Ottoman relations in the medieval and early modern periods. Timely and informative, Martin’s Selimus will appeal as much to scholars and students interested in the eclectic canon of Queen’s Men plays as to book buyers wanting to expand their knowledge of Elizabethan drama.” — Kirk Melnikoff, University of North Carolina CharlotteTable of Contents AcknowledgementsIntroductionRobert Greene: A Brief Chronology of his Life and TimesA Note on the TextThe First Part of the Tragical Reign of Selimus, Sometime Emperor of the Turks Appendix A: Robert Greene, Greene’s Groatsworth of Wit (1592)Appendix B: Atheism and Machiavellianism 1. From Innocent Gentillet, A Discourse Upon the Means of Well Governing and Maintaining in Good Peace a Kingdom or Other Principality … Against Nicholas Machiavel the Florentine (1602) 2. Thomas Kyd, Letters to Sir John Puckering about Christopher Marlowe (1593) 3. Richard Baines, “A note containing the opinion of Christopher Marlowe concerning his damnable judgment of religion and scorn of God’s word” (1593) 4. From Francis Bacon, “Of Atheism” (1625) Appendix C: Early Modern English Representations of Islam 1. From George Whetstone, The English Mirror (1586) 2. From Anonymous, Sir Bevis of Hampton (1585) 3. From Giles Fletcher, The Policy of the Turkish Empire (1597) Works Cited and Further Reading

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Book SynopsisGeorge Lyman Kittredge's insightful editions of Shakespeare have endured in part because of his eclecticism, his diversity of interests, and his wide-ranging accomplishments, all of which are reflected in the valuable notes in each volume.These new editions have specific emphasis on the performance histories of the plays (on stage and screen). Features of each edition include: The introduction to the original Kittredge Edition Editor's Introduction to the Focus Edition. An overview on major themes of the plays, and sections on the play's performance history on stage and screen. Explanatory Notes. The explanatory notes either expand on Kittredge's superb glosses, or, in the case of plays for which he did not write notes, give the needed explanations for Shakespeare's sometimes demanding language. Performance notes. These appear separately and immediately below the textual footnotes and include discussions of noteworthy stagings of the plays, issues of interpretation, and film and stage choices. How to read the play as Performance Section. A discussion of the written play vs. the play as performed and the various ways in which Shakespeare's words allow the reader to envision the work "off the page." Comprehensive Timeline. Covering major historical events (with brief annotations) as well as relevant details from Shakespeare's life. Some of the Chronologies include time chronologies within the plays. Topics for Discussion and Further Study Section. Critical Issues: Dealing with the text in a larger context and considerations of character, genre, language, and interpretative problems. Performance Issues: Problems and intricacies of staging the play connected to chief issues discussed in the Focus Editions' Introduction. Select Bibliography & Filmography Images from major productions, for comparison and scene study.

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Book SynopsisGeorge Lyman Kittredge's insightful editions of Shakespeare have endured in part because of his eclecticism, his diversity of interests, and his wide-ranging accomplishments, all of which are reflected in the valuable notes in each volume. These new editions have specific emphasis on the performance histories of the plays (on stage and screen). Features of each edition include: - The original introduction to the Kittredge Edition - Editor's Introduction to the Focus Edition. An overview on major themes of the plays, and sections on the play's performance history on stage and screen. - Explanatory Notes. The explanatory notes either expand on Kittredge's superb glosses, or, in the case of plays for which he did not write notes, give the needed explanations for Shakespeare's sometimes demanding language. - Performance notes. These appear separately and immediately below the textual footnotes and include discussions of noteworthy stagings of the plays, issues of interpretation, and film and stage choices. - How to read the play as Performance Section. A discussion of the written play vs. the play as performed and the various ways in which Shakespeare's words allow the reader to envision the work "off the page." - Comprehensive Timeline. Covering major historical events (with brief annotations) as well as relevant details from Shakespeare's life. Some of the Chronologies include time chronologies within the plays. - Topics for Discussion and Further Study Section. Critical Issues: Dealing with the text in a larger context and considerations of character, genre, language, and interpretative problems. Performance Issues: Problems and intricacies of staging the play connected to chief issues discussed in the Focus Editions' Introduction. - Select Bibliography & Filmography Each New Kittredge edition also includes screen grabs from major productions, for comparison and scene study.

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Book SynopsisGeorge Lyman Kittredge's insightful editions of Shakespeare have endured in part because of his eclecticism, his diversity of interests, and his wide-ranging accomplishments, all of which are reflected in the valuable notes in each volume. These new editions have specific emphasis on the performance histories of the plays (on stage and screen). Features of each edition include: - The original introduction to the Kittredge Edition - Editor's Introduction to the Focus Edition. An overview on major themes of the plays, and sections on the play's performance history on stage and screen. - Explanatory Notes. The explanatory notes either expand on Kittredge's superb glosses, or, in the case of plays for which he did not write notes, give the needed explanations for Shakespeare's sometimes demanding language. - Performance notes. These appear separately and immediately below the textual footnotes and include discussions of noteworthy stagings of the plays, issues of interpretation, and film and stage choices. - How to read the play as Performance Section. A discussion of the written play vs. the play as performed and the various ways in which Shakespeare's words allow the reader to envision the work "off the page." - Comprehensive Timeline. Covering major historical events (with brief annotations) as well as relevant details from Shakespeare's life. Some of the Chronologies include time chronologies within the plays. - Topics for Discussion and Further Study Section. Critical Issues: Dealing with the text in a larger context and considerations of character, genre, language, and interpretative problems. Performance Issues: Problems and intricacies of staging the play connected to chief issues discussed in the Focus Editions' Introduction. - Select Bibliography & Filmography Each New Kittredge edition also includes screen grabs from major productions, for comparison and scene study.

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Book SynopsisGeorge Lyman Kittredge's insightful editions of Shakespeare have endured in part because of his eclecticism, his diversity of interests, and his wide-ranging accomplishments, all of which are reflected in the valuable notes in each volume. These new editions have specific emphasis on the performance histories of the plays (on stage and screen). Features of each edition include: - The original introduction to the Kittredge Edition - Editor's Introduction to the Focus Edition. An overview on major themes of the plays, and sections on the play's performance history on stage and screen. - Explanatory Notes. The explanatory notes either expand on Kittredge's superb glosses, or, in the case of plays for which he did not write notes, give the needed explanations for Shakespeare's sometimes demanding language. - Performance notes. These appear separately and immediately below the textual footnotes and include discussions of noteworthy stagings of the plays, issues of interpretation, and film and stage choices. - How to read the play as Performance Section. A discussion of the written play vs. the play as performed and the various ways in which Shakespeare's words allow the reader to envision the work "off the page." - Comprehensive Timeline. Covering major historical events (with brief annotations) as well as relevant details from Shakespeare's life. Some of the Chronologies include time chronologies within the plays. - Topics for Discussion and Further Study Section. Critical Issues: Dealing with the text in a larger context and considerations of character, genre, language, and interpretative problems. Performance Issues: Problems and intricacies of staging the play connected to chief issues discussed in the Focus Editions' Introduction. - Select Bibliography & Filmography Each New Kittredge edition also includes screen grabs from major productions, for comparison and scene study.

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Book Synopsis George Lyman Kittredge's insightful editions of Shakespeare have endured in part because of his eclecticism, his diversity of interests, and his wide-ranging accomplishments, all of which are reflected in the valuable notes in each volume. These new editions have specific emphasis on the performance histories of the plays (on stage and screen).Features of each edition include: The original introduction to the Kittredge Edition Editor's Introduction to the Focus Edition. An overview on major themes of the plays, and sections on the play's performance history on stage and screen. Explanatory Notes. The explanatory notes either expand on Kittredge's superb glosses, or, in the case of plays for which he did not write notes, give the needed explanations for Shakespeare's sometimes demanding language. Performance notes. These appear separately and immediately below the textual footnotes and include discussions of noteworthy stagings of the plays, issues of interpretation, and film and stage choices. How to read the play as Performance Section. A discussion of the written play vs. the play as performed and the various ways in which Shakespeare's words allow the reader to envision the work "off the page." Comprehensive Timeline. Covering major historical events (with brief annotations) as well as relevant details from Shakespeare's life. Some of the Chronologies include time chronologies within the plays. Topics for Discussion and Further Study Section. Critical Issues: Dealing with the text in a larger context and considerations of character, genre, language, and interpretative problems. Performance Issues: Problems and intricacies of staging the play connected to chief issues discussed in the Focus Editions' Introduction. Select Bibliography & Filmography Film stills from major productions, for comparison and scene study.

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Book SynopsisGeorge Lyman Kittredge's insightful editions of Shakespeare have endured in part because of his eclecticism, his diversity of interests, and his wide-ranging accomplishments, all of which are reflected in the valuable notes in each volume. These new editions have specific emphasis on the performance histories of the plays (on stage and screen). Features of each edition include: - The original introduction to the Kittredge Edition - Editor's Introduction to the Focus Edition. An overview on major themes of the plays, and sections on the play's performance history on stage and screen. - Explanatory Notes. The explanatory notes either expand on Kittredge's superb glosses, or, in the case of plays for which he did not write notes, give the needed explanations for Shakespeare's sometimes demanding language. - Performance notes. These appear separately and immediately below the textual footnotes and include discussions of noteworthy stagings of the plays, issues of interpretation, and film and stage choices. - How to read the play as Performance Section. A discussion of the written play vs. the play as performed and the various ways in which Shakespeare's words allow the reader to envision the work "off the page." - Comprehensive Timeline. Covering major historical events (with brief annotations) as well as relevant details from Shakespeare's life. Some of the Chronologies include time chronologies within the plays. - Topics for Discussion and Further Study Section. Critical Issues: Dealing with the text in a larger context and considerations of character, genre, language, and interpretative problems. Performance Issues: Problems and intricacies of staging the play connected to chief issues discussed in the Focus Editions' Introduction. - Select Bibliography & Filmography Each New Kittredge edition also includes screen grabs from major productions, for comparison and scene study.

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Book SynopsisGeorge Lyman Kittredge's insightful editions of Shakespeare have endured in part because of his eclecticism, his diversity of interests, and his wide-ranging accomplishments, all of which are reflected in the valuable notes in each volume. These new editions have specific emphasis on the performance histories of the plays (on stage and screen). Features of each edition include: - The original introduction to the Kittredge Edition - Editor's Introduction to the Focus Edition. An overview on major themes of the plays, and sections on the play's performance history on stage and screen. - Explanatory Notes. The explanatory notes either expand on Kittredge's superb glosses, or, in the case of plays for which he did not write notes, give the needed explanations for Shakespeare's sometimes demanding language. - Performance notes. These appear separately and immediately below the textual footnotes and include discussions of noteworthy stagings of the plays, issues of interpretation, and film and stage choices. - How to read the play as Performance Section. A discussion of the written play vs. the play as performed and the various ways in which Shakespeare's words allow the reader to envision the work "off the page." - Comprehensive Timeline. Covering major historical events (with brief annotations) as well as relevant details from Shakespeare's life. Some of the Chronologies include time chronologies within the plays. - Topics for Discussion and Further Study Section. Critical Issues: Dealing with the text in a larger context and considerations of character, genre, language, and interpretative problems. Performance Issues: Problems and intricacies of staging the play connected to chief issues discussed in the Focus Editions' Introduction. - Select Bibliography & Filmography Each New Kittredge edition also includes screen grabs from major productions, for comparison and scene study.

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Book Synopsis

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Book Synopsis

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Book SynopsisGeorge Lyman Kittredge's insightful editions of Shakespeare have endured in part because of his eclecticism, his diversity of interests, and his wide-ranging accomplishments, all of which are reflected in the valuable notes in each volume. These new editions have specific emphasis on the performance histories of the plays (on stage and screen). Features of each edition include: - The original introduction to the Kittredge Edition - Editor's Introduction to the Focus Edition. An overview on major themes of the plays, and sections on the play's performance history on stage and screen. - Explanatory Notes. The explanatory notes either expand on Kittredge's superb glosses, or, in the case of plays for which he did not write notes, give the needed explanations for Shakespeare's sometimes demanding language. - Performance notes. These appear separately and immediately below the textual footnotes and include discussions of noteworthy stagings of the plays, issues of interpretation, and film and stage choices. - How to read the play as Performance Section. A discussion of the written play vs. the play as performed and the various ways in which Shakespeare's words allow the reader to envision the work "off the page." - Comprehensive Timeline. Covering major historical events (with brief annotations) as well as relevant details from Shakespeare's life. Some of the Chronologies include time chronologies within the plays. - Topics for Discussion and Further Study Section. Critical Issues: Dealing with the text in a larger context and considerations of character, genre, language, and interpretative problems. Performance Issues: Problems and intricacies of staging the play connected to chief issues discussed in the Focus Editions' Introduction. - Select Bibliography & Filmography Each New Kittredge edition also includes screen grabs from major productions, for comparison and scene study.

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Book SynopsisGeorge Lyman Kittredge''s insightful editions of Shakespeare have endured in part because of his eclecticism, his diversity of interests, and his wide-ranging accomplishmentsall of which are reflected in the valuable notes in each volume. The plays in the New Kittredge Shakespeare series retain their original Kittredge notes and introductions, changed or augmented only when some modernization seems necessary. These new editions also include introductory essays by contemporary editors, notes on the plays as they have been performed on stage and film, and additional student materials.

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Book SynopsisGeorge Lyman Kittredge's insightful editions of Shakespeare have endured in part because of his eclecticism, his diversity of interests, and his wide-ranging accomplishments, all of which are reflected in the valuable notes in each volume. These new editions have specific emphasis on the performance histories of the plays (on stage and screen). Features of each edition include: - The original introduction to the Kittredge Edition - Editor's Introduction to the Focus Edition. An overview on major themes of the plays, and sections on the play's performance history on stage and screen. - Explanatory Notes. The explanatory notes either expand on Kittredge's superb glosses, or, in the case of plays for which he did not write notes, give the needed explanations for Shakespeare's sometimes demanding language. - Performance notes. These appear separately and immediately below the textual footnotes and include discussions of noteworthy stagings of the plays, issues of interpretation, and film and stage choices. - How to read the play as Performance Section. A discussion of the written play vs. the play as performed and the various ways in which Shakespeare's words allow the reader to envision the work "off the page." - Comprehensive Timeline. Covering major historical events (with brief annotations) as well as relevant details from Shakespeare's life. Some of the Chronologies include time chronologies within the plays. - Topics for Discussion and Further Study Section. Critical Issues: Dealing with the text in a larger context and considerations of character, genre, language, and interpretative problems. Performance Issues: Problems and intricacies of staging the play connected to chief issues discussed in the Focus Editions' Introduction. - Select Bibliography & Filmography Each New Kittredge edition also includes screen grabs from major productions, for comparison and scene study.

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Book Synopsis George Lyman Kittredge's insightful editions of Shakespeare have endured in part because of his eclecticism, his diversity of interests, and his wide-ranging accomplishments, all of which are reflected in the valuable notes in each volume. These new editions have specific emphasis on the performance histories of the plays (on stage and screen). Features of each edition include: The original introduction to the Kittredge Edition Editor's Introduction to the Focus Edition. An overview on major themes of the plays, and sections on the play's performance history on stage and screen. Explanatory Notes. The explanatory notes either expand on Kittredge's superb glosses, or, in the case of plays for which he did not write notes, give the needed explanations for Shakespeare's sometimes demanding language. Performance notes. These appear separately and immediately below the textual footnotes and include discussions of noteworthy stagings of the plays, issues of interpretation, and film and stage choices. How to read the play as Performance Section. A discussion of the written play vs. the play as performed and the various ways in which Shakespeare's words allow the reader to envision the work "off the page." Comprehensive Timeline. Covering major historical events (with brief annotations) as well as relevant details from Shakespeare's life. Some include time chronologies within the plays. Topics for Discussion and Further Study. Critical Issues: Dealing with the text in a larger context and considerations of character, genre, language, and interpretative problems. Performance Issues: Problems and intricacies of staging the play connected to chief issues discussed in the Focus Editions' Introduction. Select Bibliography & Filmography Each New Kittredge edition also includes screen grabs from major productions, for comparison and scene study.

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Book SynopsisGeorge Lyman Kittredge's insightful editions of Shakespeare have endured in part because of his eclecticism, his diversity of interests, and his wide-ranging accomplishments, all of which are reflected in the valuable notes in each volume. These new editions have specific emphasis on the performance histories of the plays (on stage and screen). Features of each edition include: - The original introduction to the Kittredge Edition - Editor's Introduction to the Focus Edition. An overview on major themes of the plays, and sections on the play's performance history on stage and screen. - Explanatory Notes. The explanatory notes either expand on Kittredge's superb glosses, or, in the case of plays for which he did not write notes, give the needed explanations for Shakespeare's sometimes demanding language. - Performance notes. These appear separately and immediately below the textual footnotes and include discussions of noteworthy stagings of the plays, issues of interpretation, and film and stage choices. - How to read the play as Performance Section. A discussion of the written play vs. the play as performed and the various ways in which Shakespeare's words allow the reader to envision the work "off the page." - Comprehensive Timeline. Covering major historical events (with brief annotations) as well as relevant details from Shakespeare's life. Some of the Chronologies include time chronologies within the plays. - Topics for Discussion and Further Study Section. Critical Issues: Dealing with the text in a larger context and considerations of character, genre, language, and interpretative problems. Performance Issues: Problems and intricacies of staging the play connected to chief issues discussed in the Focus Editions' Introduction. - Select Bibliography & Filmography Each New Kittredge edition also includes screen grabs from major productions, for comparison and scene study.

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Book SynopsisGeorge Lyman Kittredge's insightful editions of Shakespeare have endured in part because of his eclecticism, his diversity of interests, and his wide-ranging accomplishments, all of which are reflected in the valuable notes in each volume. These new editions have specific emphasis on the performance histories of the plays (on stage and screen). Features of each edition include: - The original introduction to the Kittredge Edition - Editor's Introduction to the Focus Edition. An overview on major themes of the plays, and sections on the play's performance history on stage and screen. - Explanatory Notes. The explanatory notes either expand on Kittredge's superb glosses, or, in the case of plays for which he did not write notes, give the needed explanations for Shakespeare's sometimes demanding language. - Performance notes. These appear separately and immediately below the textual footnotes and include discussions of noteworthy stagings of the plays, issues of interpretation, and film and stage choices. - How to read the play as Performance Section. A discussion of the written play vs. the play as performed and the various ways in which Shakespeare's words allow the reader to envision the work "off the page." - Comprehensive Timeline. Covering major historical events (with brief annotations) as well as relevant details from Shakespeare's life. Some of the Chronologies include time chronologies within the plays. - Topics for Discussion and Further Study Section. Critical Issues: Dealing with the text in a larger context and considerations of character, genre, language, and interpretative problems. Performance Issues: Problems and intricacies of staging the play connected to chief issues discussed in the Focus Editions' Introduction. - Select Bibliography & Filmography Each New Kittredge edition also includes screen grabs from major productions, for comparison and scene study.

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Book Synopsis

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Book SynopsisGeorge Lyman Kittredge's insightful editions of Shakespeare have endured in part because of his eclecticism, his diversity of interests, and his wide-ranging accomplishments, all of which are reflected in the valuable notes in each volume. These new editions have specific emphasis on the performance histories of the plays (on stage and screen). Features of each edition include: - The original introduction to the Kittredge Edition - Editor's Introduction to the Focus Edition. An overview on major themes of the plays, and sections on the play's performance history on stage and screen. - Explanatory Notes. The explanatory notes either expand on Kittredge's superb glosses, or, in the case of plays for which he did not write notes, give the needed explanations for Shakespeare's sometimes demanding language. - Performance notes. These appear separately and immediately below the textual footnotes and include discussions of noteworthy stagings of the plays, issues of interpretation, and film and stage choices. - How to read the play as Performance Section. A discussion of the written play vs. the play as performed and the various ways in which Shakespeare's words allow the reader to envision the work "off the page." - Comprehensive Timeline. Covering major historical events (with brief annotations) as well as relevant details from Shakespeare's life. Some of the Chronologies include time chronologies within the plays. - Topics for Discussion and Further Study Section. Critical Issues: Dealing with the text in a larger context and considerations of character, genre, language, and interpretative problems. Performance Issues: Problems and intricacies of staging the play connected to chief issues discussed in the Focus Editions' Introduction. - Select Bibliography & Filmography Each New Kittredge edition also includes screen grabs from major productions, for comparison and scene study.

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