Hamlet's combination of violence & introspection is unusual among Shakespeare's tragedies. It is also full of curious riddles & fascinating paradoxes making it one of his most widely discussed plays. Professor Hibbard's illuminating & original introduction explains the process by which variant texts were fused in the eighteenth century to create the most commonly used text of today. Drawing on both critical & theatrical history he shows how this gusion makes Hamlet seem a much more 'problematic' play than it was when it originally appeared in the First Folio of 1623. The Oxford Shakespeare edition presents a radically new text based on that First Folio which printed Shakespeare's own revision of an earlier version. The result is a 'theatrical' & highly practical edition for students & actors alike. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features including expert introductions by leading authorities helpful notes to clarify the text up-to-date bibliographies for further study & much more. ...

As Henrys throne is threatened by rebel forces England is divided. The characters reflect these oppositions with Hal & Hotspur vying for position & Falstaff leading Hal away from his father & towards excess. During Shakespeares lifetime Henry IV Part I was his most reprinted play & it remains enormously popular with theatregoers & readers. Falstaff still towers among Shakespeares comic inventions as he did in the late 1590s. David Bevingtons introduction discusses the play in both peformance & criticism from Shakespeares time to our own illustrating the variety of interpretations of which the text is capable. He analyses the plays richly textured language in a detailed commentary on individual words & phrases & clearly explains its historical background. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford Worlds Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxfords commitment to scholarship providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features including expert introductions by leading authorities helpful notes to clarify the text up-to-date bibliographies for further study & much more. ...

When Claudio breaks the new laws against vice in Vienna by getting his financee Julietta pregnant a series of ethical issues is brought under scrutiny. His sisters virtue is held to ransom by the deputy rule of the city until justice is done mercy shown & order restored. This is among Shakespeares most vivid dramatic projections of moral duplicity. The introduction discusses the origins of his treatment of the well-known story & examines his sources. The editor also sets the play in its historical context & offers the most comprehensive available account of the texts theatrical life from Restoration adaptations to present-day productions. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford Worlds Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxfords commitment to scholarship providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features including expert introductions by leading authorities helpful notes to clarify the text up-to-date bibliographies for further study & much more. ...

Sparkling with the witty dialogue between Beatrice & Benedicts Much Ado About Nothing is one of Shakespeares most enjoyable & theatrically successful comedies. This edition offers a newly edited text & an exceptionally helpful & critically aware introduction. Paying particular attention to analysis of the plays minor characters Sheldon P Zitner discusses Shakespeares transformation of his source material. He rethinks the attitudes to gender relations that underlie the comedy & determine its view of marriage. Allowing for the plays openness to reinterpretation by successive generations of readers & peformers Zitner provides a socially analytic stage history advancing new views for the actor as much as for the critic. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford Worlds Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxfords commitment to scholarship providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features including expert introductions by leading authorities helpful notes to clarify the text up-to-date bibliographies for further study & much more. ...

The Oxford Shakespeare General Editor: Stanley Wells The Oxford Shakespeare offers authoritative texts from leading scholars in editions designed to interpret & illuminate the plays for modern readers
- A new modern-spelling text collated & edited from all existing printings
- Extensive introduction gives full attention to the play's bold treatment of racial themes gender & social relations
- Detailed performance history designed to meet the needs of theatre professionals
- On-page commentary & notes explain language word-play & staging
- Appendices on music in the play & a full translation of the Italian novella from which the story derives
- Illustrated with production photographs & related art
- Full index to introduction & commentary
- Durable sewn binding for lasting use 'not simply a better text but a new conception of Shakespeare. This is a major achievement of twentieth-century scholarship.' ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features including expert introductions by leading authorities helpful notes to clarify the text up-to-date bibliographies for further study & much more.







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What was Shakespeares attitude to Semitism? The Introduction to this edition of The Merchant of Venice opens by addressing this vital issue raised by the play & goes on to study the sources background & date includuing a discussion of Sigmund Freuds essay on The Three Caskets. Professor Halio interprets the plays contradictions inconsistencies & complementarities especially as these relate to the overarching theme of bonds & bondage. A survey of the plays stage history ranges from discussions of its early staging to important twentieth-century productions & performances outside England particularly in Israel. The text based on a fresh examination of the early editions is presented in modernized spelling & punctuation. Unfailingly lucid & helpful this is an ideal edition for students actors & the general reader. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford Worlds Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxfords commitment to scholarship providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features including expert introductions by leading authorities helpful notes to clarify the text up-to-date bibliographies for further study & much more. ...

The Merry Wives of Windsor was almost certainly required at short notice for a court occasion in 1597: Shakespeare threw into it all the creative energy that went into his Henry IV plays. Falstaff is here with Pistol Mistress Quickly & Justice Shallow in a spirited & warm-hearted citizen comedy. Boisterous action is combined with situational irony & rich characterization. In his introduction T. W. Craik discusses the plays probable occasion (the Garter Feast of 1597 at court) its relationship to Shakespeares English history plays & to other sources its textual history (with particular reference to the widely diverging 1623 Folio & 1602 Quarto) & its original quality as drama. He assesses various interpretations of the play topical critical & theatrical. In the commentary he pays particular attention to expounding the literal sense (he proposes some new readings) & evoking the stage business. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford Worlds Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxfords commitment to scholarship providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features including expert introductions by leading authorities helpful notes to clarify the text up-to-date bibliographies for further study & much more. ...

Performed variously as escapist fantasy celebratory fiction & political allegory The Tempest is one of the plays in which Shakespeare's genius as a poetic dramatist found its fullest expression. Significantly it was placed first when published in the First Folio of 1623 & is now generally seen as the playwright's most penetrating statement about his art. Stephen Orgel's wide-ranging introduction examines changing attitudes to The Tempest & reassesses the evidence behind the various readings. He focuses on key characters & their roles & relationships as well as on the dramatic historical & political context finding the play to be both more open & more historically determined than traditional views have allowed. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features including expert introductions by leading authorities helpful notes to clarify the text up-to-date bibliographies for further study & much more. ...

The Winter's Tale is Shakespeare's most perfectly realized tragi- comedy as notable for its tragic intensity as for its comic grace & throughout for the richness & complexity of its poetry. It concludes moreover with the most daring & moving reconciliation scene in all Shakespeare's plays. Though the title may suggest an escapist fantasy recent criticism has seen in the play a profoundly realist psychology & a powerful commentary on the violence implicit in family relationships & deep longlasting friendships. Stephen Orgel's edition considers the play in relation to Renaissance conceptions of both dramatic genre & the family traces the changing critical & theatrical attitudes towards it & places its psychological & dramatic conflicts within the Jacobean cultural & political context. The commentary pays special attention to the play's linguistic complexity & the edition also

Includes:: a complete reprint of Shakespeare's source Pandosto by Robert Greene. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features including expert introductions by leading authorities helpful notes to clarify the text up-to-date bibliographies for further study & much more.

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Titus Andronicus was the young Shakespeares audacious sporadically brilliant experiment in sensational tragedy. Its horrors are notorious but its powerful poetry of grief is the work of a true tragic poet. Introducing this edition E.M. Waith provides a fresh view of the play in its historical context as well as an original discussion of the famous Peacham drawing
- the only surviving contemporary Shakespeare illustration. An illustrated account of performances notably Peter Brooks production with Oliver as Titus leads to an assessment of the plays qualities in the light of its critical reception. The eighteenth-century version of the plays probable source is given in one of the appendices. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford Worlds Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxfords commitment to scholarship providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features including expert introductions by leading authorities helpful notes to clarify the text up-to-date bibliographies for further study & much more.
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