Books in the The New Cambridge Shakespeare series

The New Cambridge Shakespeare appeals to students worldwide for its up-to-date scholarship and emphasis on performance. The series features line-by-line commentaries and textual notes on the plays and poems. Introductions are regularly refreshed with accounts of new critical, stage and screen interpretations. For this second edition of The Sonnets, Stephen Orgel has written a new introduction to Shakespeare's best-loved and most widely read poems. In a series of focused readings he probes the sonnets' sexual and temperamental ambiguity as well as their complex textual history, and explores the difficulties editors face when modernising the spelling, punctuation and layout of the 1609 quarto. Orgel reminds us that the order in which the sonnets were composed bears no relation to the order in which they appear in the quarto and he warns against reading them biographically. This edition retains the text prepared by G. Blakemore Evans, together with his notes and commentary.

For four centuries Twelfth Night has inspired theatre directors and performers. Surveying a dazzling range of Twelfth Night productions - including many significant productions which have not received due critical attention previously - Schafer provides the reader with an indispensable stage history of this popular play, from its first performance to today.

The New Cambridge Shakespeare appeals to students worldwide for its up-to-date scholarship and emphasis on performance. The series features line-by-line commentaries, textual notes on the plays and poems and an extensive Introduction. Shakespeare's plays about the reign of King Henry VI were written at the beginning of his career. A recent series of outstanding productions has demonstrated their theatrical vitality, and their sceptical questioning of Elizabethan orthodoxies has been understood through revisionist readings of the history of Shakespeare's own times. In The Third Part of King Henry VI, Shakespeare extends his essay on monarchical politics by contrasting two kings, the good but ineffective Henry VI with his rival, the sensual and victorious Edward IV. He also shows the perils of aristocratic factionalism in a series of scenes that display the grievous wounds caused by the Wars of the Roses.

The New Cambridge Shakespeare appeals to students worldwide for its up-to-date scholarship and emphasis on performance. The series features line-by-line commentaries and textual notes on the plays and poems. Introductions are regularly refreshed with accounts of new critical, stage and screen interpretations. Edited and introduced by William C. Carroll, this edition of Love's Labour Lost features a lively account of the play's performance history from 1632 to the present day. Stage and screen productions of the late twentieth century receive particular attention and a range of international performances are also explored. New trends in the scholarly criticism are discussed in the introduction, as are the play's sources and historical contexts. Carroll's text is freshly edited from the First Quarto, published in 1598, and presents a highly readable modernised edition of Love's Labour Lost; a play known for its unorthodox ending and extraordinary use of language.

The New Cambridge Shakespeare appeals to students worldwide for its up-to-date scholarship and emphasis on performance. The series features line-by-line commentaries and textual notes on the plays and poems. Introductions are regularly refreshed with accounts of new critical, stage and screen interpretations. Edited and introduced by John Margeson, King Henry VIII appears here for the first time in a New Cambridge Shakespeare edition. In his introduction Margeson explores the political and religious background to the play, its pageant-like structure and visual effects, and its varied ironies. He also discusses its stage history, from the famous occasion in 1613 when the Globe theatre burned down during a performance of King Henry VIII to important theatrical productions of the late twentieth century. A balanced account is provided of the authorship controversy that arose in the nineteenth century, when John Fletcher's name was first put forward as a likely collaborator.

The New Cambridge Shakespeare appeals to students worldwide for its up-to-date scholarship and emphasis on performance. The series features line-by-line commentaries and textual notes on the plays and poems. Introductions are regularly refreshed with accounts of new critical, stage and screen interpretations. Edited and introduced by Martin Butler, this first New Cambridge Shakespeare edition of Cymbeline takes full account of the critical and historical scholarship produced in the late twentieth century. It foregrounds the romance, tragicomedy and Jacobean stagecraft that shape the play and offers a refreshingly unsentimental reading of the heroine, Innogen. Butler pays greater attention than his predecessors to the politics of 1610, especially to questions of British union and nationhood. He also offers a lively account of Cymbeline's stage history from 1610 to the present day. The text has been edited from the 1623 Folio and features a detailed commentary on its linguistic and historical features.

The New Cambridge Shakespeare appeals to students worldwide for its up-to-date scholarship and emphasis on performance. The series features line-by-line commentaries, textual notes on the plays and poems and an extensive Introduction. Shakespeare's plays about the reign of King Henry VI were written at the beginning of his career. A recent series of outstanding productions has demonstrated their theatrical vitality, and their sceptical questioning of Elizabethan orthodoxies has been understood through revisionist readings of the history of Shakespeare's own times. The Wars of the Roses haunted the Elizabethans. Among many accounts, Shakespeare's was the most ambitious, dramatically innovative and radical. The Second Part of King Henry VI is concerned with the nature of history, the role of conscience and the relation between law and equity. It contains a complex reading of a popular uprising, led by Jack Cade.

The New Cambridge Shakespeare appeals to students worldwide for its up-to-date scholarship and emphasis on performance. The series features line-by-line commentaries and textual notes on the plays and poems. Introductions are regularly refreshed with accounts of new critical, stage and screen interpretations. This third edition of Julius Caesar retains the text prepared by Marvin Spevak for the 1988 first edition and features a completely new introduction by Jeremy Lopez. Discussing in detail the play's strange and innovative form, Lopez explores the interpretive challenges Julius Caesar has presented to audiences, scholars and theatre companies from Shakespeare's time to our own. The textual commentary has been revised and updated with an eye, and ear, to the contemporary student reader, and the list of further readings has been updated to reflect the latest developments in scholarly criticism. The edition concludes with an Appendix containing relevant excerpts from Shakespeare's main source in Plutarch.

English literature, Literature - editions, texts, Shakespeare

The New Cambridge Shakespeare appeals to students worldwide for its up-to-date scholarship and emphasis on performance. The series features line-by-line commentaries and textual notes on the plays and poems and an extensive introduction. The Winter's Tale is one of Shakespeare's most varied, theatrically self-conscious, and emotionally wide-ranging plays. Much of the play's copiousness inheres in its generic intermingling of tragedy, comedy, romance, pastoral, and the history play. In addition to dates and sources, the introduction attends to iterative patterns, the nature and cause of Leontes' jealousy, the staging and meaning of the bear episode, and the thematic and structural implications of the figure of Time. Special attention is paid to the ending and its tempered happiness. Performance history is integrated throughout the introduction and commentary. Appendices include the theatrical practice of doubling.

The New Cambridge Shakespeare appeals to students worldwide for its up-to-date scholarship and emphasis on performance. The series features line-by-line commentaries and textual notes on the plays and poems. Introductions are regularly refreshed with accounts of new critical, stage and screen interpretations. This second edition of Coriolanus, edited by Lee Bliss, provides a thorough reconsideration of what was probably Shakespeare's last tragedy. In the introduction, Bliss situates the play within its contemporary social and political contexts and pays particular attention to Shakespeare's manipulation of his primary source in Plutarch's Lives. The edition is alert to the play's theatrical potential, while the stage history also attends to the politics of performance from the 1680s onwards, including European productions following the Second World War. A new introductory section by Bridget Escolme accounts for recent theatrical productions as well as scholarly criticism of the last decade, with particular emphasis on gender and politics.

The third edition of Hamlet offers a completely new introduction to this rich, mysterious play. Supplemented by an updated reading list, extensive illustrations and helpful appendices, this edition features revised commentary notes explicitly designed for the student reader, offering the very best in contemporary criticism of this great tragedy.

For this third edition of Twelfth Night, Penny Gay has updated her Introduction to this well-loved Shakespearean comedy and has also provided a refreshed reading list. The edition features a thorough performance history, which focuses on a number of important recent performances and includes a new selection of photographs.

Troilus and Cressida, long considered one of Shakespeare's most problematic plays, is both difficult and fascinating. Largely neglected during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries it has recently proved popular and rewarding on the stage as well as in the study. This edition questions certain received ideas about the play's text, especially the relationship between quarto and folio and offers several new readings of old problems. Dawson's textual choices are often surprising but at the same time carefully grounded. He views the play from a performance perspective - both in the commentary as well as in the detailed section on stage history in the introduction. The introduction also covers the cultural context in which the play was written, probes the controversy about its early performance and provides extensive analysis of character, language, genre and contemporary significance.

The New Cambridge Shakespeare appeals to students worldwide for its up-to-date scholarship and emphasis on performance. The series features line-by-line commentaries and textual notes on the plays and poems. Introductions are regularly refreshed with accounts of new critical, stage and screen interpretations. Edited and introduced by L. A. Beaurline, the New Cambridge Shakespeare edition of King John offers the most complete account to date of the play's stage history, with accompanying illustrations to demonstrate its dramatic potential. Although King John fell out of fashion by the end of the nineteenth century, Beaurline shows how its political importance, rich and varied language, and skilful design suggest that it should occupy a prominent position among Shakespeare's historical tragedies. In the Appendix, Beaurline surveys the arguments about the dating of the play and the anonymous Troublesome Reign of King John, and presents new evidence to support the view that Shakespeare's play was written first.

The New Cambridge Shakespeare appeals to students worldwide for its up-to-date scholarship and emphasis on performance. The series features line-by-line commentaries and textual notes on the plays and poems. Introductions are regularly refreshed with accounts of new critical, stage and screen interpretations. For this second edition of Measure for Measure Angela Stock has written a new introductory section that takes account of recent scholarly criticism and important contemporary productions on stage and film. The edition retains the text prepared by Brian Gibbons together with his comprehensive introduction, in which he shows how the play's critical reception and stage history varies from one period to the next according to the prevailing social, moral and religious issues of the day. Gibbons explores the thrilling experience of watching the play in performance, with its shocking reversals and surprises, great tragic poetry and exuberant comic prose. An updated reading list completes the edition.

The New Cambridge Shakespeare appeals to students worldwide for its up-to-date scholarship and emphasis on performance. The series features line-by-line commentaries and textual notes on the plays and poems. Introductions are regularly refreshed with accounts of new critical, stage and screen interpretations. For this second edition of King Richard III, Janis Lull has added a new section to her introduction, in which she focuses on contemporary productions of the play as well as recent scholarly criticism. Lull emphasises the importance of women's roles in this popular drama but shows how the text has frequently been cut, rewritten and reshaped by directors and actors to enhance the role of Richard, often at the expense of female characters. The special relationship between King Richard III and Macbeth is also explored while the notes detail the play's language in terms that are easily accessible to contemporary readers.

The New Cambridge Shakespeare appeals to students worldwide for its up-to-date scholarship and emphasis on performance. The series features line-by-line commentaries and textual notes on the plays and poems. Introductions are regularly refreshed with accounts of new critical, stage and screen interpretations. This is the third New Cambridge edition of The Taming of the Shrew, one of Shakespeare's most popular yet controversial plays. Ann Thompson considers its reception in the light of the hostility and embarrassment that the play often arouses, taking account of both scholarly defences and modern feminist criticism. For this version the editor pays lively attention to the problematic nature of debates about the play and its reception in the twenty-first century. She discusses recent editions and textual, performance and critical studies.

The New Cambridge Shakespeare appeals to students worldwide for its up-to-date scholarship and emphasis on performance. The series features line-by-line commentaries and textual notes on the plays and poems. Introductions are regularly refreshed with accounts of new critical, stage and screen interpretations. For this second edition of King Henry V, Shakespeare's most celebrated war play, Andrew Gurr has added a new section to his introduction in which he considers recent criticism and important contemporary productions of the play. Concentrating in particular on 'secret' versus 'official' readings of the work, he analyses Shakespeare's double vision of Henry as both military hero and self-seeking individual, and shows how the patriotic declarations of the Chorus are contradicted by the play's dramatic action. Controversial sequences are placed in the context of Elizabethan thought while the exceptional variety of language and dialect in the text is also studied. An updated reading list completes the edition.

The New Cambridge Shakespeare appeals to students worldwide for its up-to-date scholarship and emphasis on performance. The series features line-by-line commentaries and textual notes on the plays and poems. Introductions are regularly refreshed with accounts of new critical, stage and screen interpretations. This second edition of Much Ado About Nothing retains the text and introduction prepared by F. H. Mares and features a new section by Angela Stock on recent film, stage and critical interpretations of the play. Mares pays special attention in the Introduction to the range of theatrical interpretations that have flourished since the first documented production of the play in the early seventeenth century. In particular, he explores notable performances of the roles of Benedick and Beatrice, from David Garrick to John Gielgud, and Peggy Ashcroft to Judi Dench. The commentary explicates the many sexual jokes in the text that are obscured by the complexity of Elizabethan English.

The New Cambridge Shakespeare appeals to students worldwide for its up-to-date scholarship and emphasis on performance. The series features line-by-line commentaries and textual notes on the plays and poems. Introductions are regularly refreshed with accounts of new critical, stage and screen interpretations. This second edition of Romeo and Juliet retains the text prepared by G. Blakemore Evans, together with his introduction and detailed textual notes. A thorough stage history features illustrations and photographs of notable performances from the eighteenth century onwards while a lucid commentary alerts the reader to the difficulties of language, thought and staging. For this second edition, Thomas Moisan has added a new introductory section which focuses on recent scholarly criticism and contemporary productions of the play. The reading list has also been revised and updated.

The New Cambridge Shakespeare appeals to students worldwide for its up-to-date scholarship and emphasis on performance. The series features line-by-line commentaries and textual notes on the plays and poems. Introductions are regularly refreshed with accounts of new critical, stage and screen interpretations. For this second edition of King Richard II Andrew Gurr has added a new section to the introduction, in which he discusses a number of important theatrical productions as well as the scholarly criticism of recent years. Gurr foregrounds the growing interest in re-historicising and re-politicising the play, emphasising that, to Shakespeare's contemporaries, King Richard II was a balanced dramatisation of the central political and constitutional issue of the day: how to reign-in an unjust ruler. The Introduction provides a full context for both contemporaneous and modern views of King Richard's fall. An updated reading list completes the edition.

The New Cambridge Shakespeare appeals to students worldwide for its up-to-date scholarship and emphasis on performance. The series features line-by-line commentaries and textual notes on the plays and poems. Introductions are regularly refreshed with accounts of new critical, stage and screen interpretations. This second edition of The Merchant of Venice retains the text and Introduction prepared by M. M. Mahood and features a new introductory section by Charles Edelman. Where Mahood focuses in her Introduction on the expectations of the play's first audience and on our modern experience of seeing and hearing the drama performed, Edelman explores the play's sexual politics. He also foregrounds recent scholarship on the position of Jews in Shakespeare's time and surveys the international scope and diversity of theatrical interpretations of the text in the 1980s and 1990s. He pays particular attention to the ways in which directors and actors tackle the troubling figure of Shylock.

The New Cambridge Shakespeare appeals to students worldwide for its up-to-date scholarship and emphasis on performance. The series features line-by-line commentaries and textual notes on the plays and poems. Introductions are regularly refreshed with accounts of new critical, stage and screen interpretations. This second edition retains Giorgio Melchiori's text of Shakespeare's The Second Part of King Henry IV. Melchiori argues that the play forms an unplanned sequel to the First Part, itself a 'remake' of an old, non-Shakespearean play. In the Second Part, Shakespeare deliberately exploits Falstaff's popular appeal and the resulting rich humour adds a comic dimension to the play, rendering it a unique blend of history, morality play and comedy. Among modern editions, Melchiori's is the one most firmly based on the quarto. This second edition includes a new section by Adam Hansen on recent stage, film and critical interpretations.

The New Cambridge Shakespeare appeals to students worldwide for its up-to-date scholarship and emphasis on performance. The series features line-by-line commentaries and textual notes on the plays and poems. Introductions are regularly refreshed with accounts of new critical, stage and screen interpretations. This second edition of Othello retains the text and Introduction prepared by Norman Sanders and features a new section by Scott McMillin on recent scholarship and key performances of the play since the 1980s. Building on the full and well-illustrated stage history compiled by Sanders, McMillin focuses on political, feminist and postcolonial treatments of Othello in various parts of the world and discusses important performances on stage, film and television. Sanders' discussion of the stylistic and racial problems facing modern readers and spectators is complemented by McMillin who explores the influence of new historicism and cultural materialism and the issue of black/white casting of the main characters.

The New Cambridge Shakespeare appeals to students worldwide for its up-to-date scholarship and emphasis on performance. The series features line-by-line commentaries and textual notes on the plays and poems. Introductions are regularly refreshed with accounts of new critical, stage and screen interpretations. For the second edition of All's Well That Ends Well, Alexander Leggatt has written a completely new introduction to Russell Fraser's text of one of Shakespeare's most puzzling, ambiguous and demanding plays. Leggatt's interest in performance is evident throughout the introduction, particularly in his discussion of the instability of the main characters. He also provides a full, illustrated and thoughtful account of the play's critical and theatrical fortunes to the end of the twentieth century, and explores our experience as an audience of seeing and hearing the play performed. An updated reading list completes the volume.

The New Cambridge Shakespeare appeals to students worldwide for its up-to-date scholarship and emphasis on performance. The series features line-by-line commentaries and textual notes on the plays and poems. Introductions are regularly refreshed with accounts of new critical, stage and screen interpretations. For this second edition of The Tempest, David Lindley has thoroughly revised the Introduction to take account of the latest developments in criticism and performance. He has also added a completely new section on casting in recent productions of the play. The complex questions this new section raises about colonisation, racial and gender stereotypes and the nature of theatrical experience are explored throughout the introduction. Careful attention is paid to dramatic form, stagecraft, and the use of music and spectacle in The Tempest, a play that is widely regarded as one of Shakespeare's most elusive and suggestive. A revised and updated reading list completes the edition.

The New Cambridge Shakespeare appeals to students worldwide for its up-to-date scholarship and emphasis on performance. The series features line-by-line commentaries and textual notes on the plays and poems. Introductions are regularly refreshed with accounts of new critical, stage and screen interpretations. Shakespeare's plays about the reign of King Henry VI were written at the beginning of his career. A recent series of outstanding productions has demonstrated their theatrical vitality, and their sceptical questioning of Elizabethan orthodoxies has been understood through revisionist readings of the history of Shakespeare's own times. The First Part of King Henry VI, which gives us Shakespeare's portrait of Joan of Arc, is revealed as a successful venture in its own exploratory style, and as a necessary account of key events in the Hundred Years War without which the Wars of the Roses, anatomised in the following two plays, cannot be understood.

Karl Klein's edition of Timon of Athens introduces Shakespeare's play as a complex exploration of a corrupt, moneyed society. Klein sees the protagonist not as a failed tragic hero, but as a rich and philanthropic nobleman, surrounded by greed and sycophancy, who is forced to recognise the inherent destructiveness of the Athenian society from which he retreats in disgust and rage. Klein establishes Timon as one of Shakespeare's late works, arguing, contrary to recent academic views, that evidence for other authors besides Shakespeare is inconclusive. The edition shows that the play is neither tragedy, satire nor comedy, but a subtle and complete drama whose main characters contain elements of all three genres. This edition was near completion at the time of Karl Klein's death, and was prepared for publication by his colleagues and by Brian Gibbons.

The New Cambridge Shakespeare appeals to students worldwide for its up-to-date scholarship and emphasis on performance. The series features line-by-line commentaries and textual notes on the plays and poems. Introductions are regularly refreshed with accounts of new critical, stage and screen interpretations. For this second edition of The Comedy of Errors, Ros King has revised T. S. Dorsch's renowned text and commentary and written a completely new introduction to the work. She argues that the play cannot be regarded merely as a farcical romp based on a classical model but that it belongs to the critically misunderstood genre of tragi-comedy. Emphasising the seriousness that underlies the text, she pays special attention to the play's religious imagery and at the same time engages fully with its lightness of touch and its continuing popularity in the theatre. The volume also features accounts of recent and historical performances, and an updated reading list.