Shakespeare William

Marga Munkelt has added a new section and pictures to the Introduction of this updated edition of Julius Caesar. It surveys stage and critical interpretations since the 1980's of Shakespeare's most famous Roman play. The reading list has also been brought up to date.

For this updated edition, David Bevington has included in his introductory section a thorough consideration of recent critical and stage interpretations of Antony and Cleopatra, demonstrating how the theatrical design and imagination of this play make it one of Shakespeare's most remarkable tragedies. The edition is attentive throughout to the play as theatre: a detailed, illustrated account of the stage history is followed, in the commentary, by discussion of staging options offered by the text. The commentary is especially full and helpful, untangling many obscure words and phrases, illuminating sexual puns, and alerting the reader to Shakespeare's shaping of his source material in Plutarch's Lives. This is a scholarly edition, but its scholarship is not intrusive: it will also satisfy those approaching the play for the first time.

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 Tempest is one of the most suggestive, yet most elusive of all Shakespeare's plays, and has provoked a wide range of critical interpretations. It is a magical romance, yet deeply and problematically embedded in seventeenth-century debates about authority and power. In this updated edition, David Lindley has thoroughly revised the introduction and reading list to take account of the latest directions in criticism and performance. Including a new section on casting in recent productions, Lindley's introduction explores the complex questions this raises about colonisation, racial and gender stereotypes, and the nature of the theatrical experience. Careful attention is also given to the play's dramatic form, stagecraft, and use of music and spectacle, to demonstrate its uniquely experimental nature.

Penguin Readers are written by specialist ELT authors. The language, vocabulary, style and content of every book is carefully graded to make sure it suits the learner's own language ability. Every Penguin Reader has a range of activities in the book and accompanying Factsheet to help increase comprehension and develop reading, writing, listening and speaking skills.

Julius Caesar's exciting plot, brilliant rhetoric and searching characterisation have made it one of Shakespeare's most popular plays with both readers and theatre-goers. When it seems that Julius Caesar may assume supreme power, a plot to destroy him is hatched by those determined to preserve the threatened Republic. But the different motives of the conspirators soon become apparent when high principles clash with malice and political realism. As the nation plunges into bloody civil war, this taut drama explores the violent consequences of betrayal and murder.

The Sonnets of William Shakespeare, a cycle of 154 linked poems, were first published in 1609. This edition, beautifully illustrated with contemporary portraits and modern artwork by the illustrator Ian Penney, contains all of the poems and they deal with many of Shakespeare's most common themes: jealousy, betrayal, melancholy, and are written in the same beautiful and innovative language that we have come to know from his plays. They ache with unfulfilled longing, and for many they are the most complete and moving meditations on love ever written.

The Taming of the Shrew is one of the most famous and controversial of Shakespeare's comedies, and feminists have been divided in their responses. The central relationship, in which Petruchio boisterously 'tames' a rebellious Kate, has often appeared problematic. In the theatre, it has been treated in a diversity of ways, so that Kate's apparent capitulation varies between the ironic and the sincere. But the play remains one of Shakespeare's most popular dramas, and has been memorably staged and filmed as the musical Kiss Me Kate, with music and lyrics by Cole Porter.

In Henry IV, Part 1, the King is in a doubly ironic position. His rebellion against Richard II was successful, but now he himself is beset by rebels, led by the charismatic Harry Hotspur. The King's son, Prince Hal, seems to be more concerned with the pleasures of the tavern world and the company of the fat rogue, Falstaff, than with concerns of state. Eventually, however, Hal proves a courageous foe of the rebels. This history play is lively in its interplay of political intrigue and boisterous comedy, subtle in the connections between high statecraft and low craftiness, exuberant in its range of vivid characters, and memorable in its thematic concern with honour, loyalty and the quest for power. In Henry IV, Part 2, the King is ailing, Falstaff is ageing, and the kingdom itself, where rebellion is still rife, seems diseased or debilitated. The comedy has a melancholy undertone, and the politics verge on the Machiavellian. Eventually, the resourceful Hal, inheriting the crown as Henry V, must prove that he can uphold justice in the realm. Here Shakespeare demonstrates a mastery of thematic complexity and subtlety, and shows the price in human terms that may be exacted by political success.

Richard II is one of Shakespeare's finest works: lucid, eloquent, and boldly structured. It can be seen as a tragedy, or a historical play, or a political drama, or as one part of a vast dramatic cycle which helped to generate England's national identity. Today, to some of us, Richard II may appear conservative; but, in Shakespeare's day, it could appear subversive: 'I am Richard II', declared an indignant Queen Elizabeth. Numerous recent revivals in the theatre and on screen have demonstrated the enduring power and poignancy of this drama of the downfall of an egoistic but pitiable monarch. Richard II is the seventeenth volume in the Wordsworth Classics' Shakespeare Series, in which each volume has been freshly edited by Cedric Watts.

This powerful drama presents the moral and psychological dilemma of a hero at war with himself, longing to revenge a murdered father but unable to do so.

'The quality of mercy is not strain'd, It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven' Bassiano, a noble Venetian, hopes to woo the beautiful heiress Portia. However, he requires financial assistance from his friend Antonio. Antonio agrees, but he, in turn, must borrow from the Jewish moneylender Shylock. As recourse for past ills, Shylock stipulates that the forfeit on the loan must be a pound of Antonio's flesh. In the most renowned onstage law scene of all time, Portia proves herself one of Shakespeare's most cunning heroines, disguising herself as a lawyer and vanquishing Shylock's claims; meanwhile, Shylock triumphs on a humanitarian level with his plea for tolerance: 'Hath not a Jew eyes'? Viewed paradoxically as anti-Semitic, while at the same time powerfully liberal for its time, The Merchant of Venice is at its core a bittersweet drama, exploring the noble themes of prejudice, justice and honour.

Bianca is beautiful and demure, with a plethora of wood-be suitors, but marriage is forbidden until her older sister Katherina finds a suitable match. The hitch? Fiery Katherina has sworn to deny the hand or demands of any would-be suitor. That is, until she meets her match in the wily Petrucio. As Katherina's own sharp tongue is met by Petrucio's feigned cruelty, the 'shrew' apparently capitulates. Or does she? This controversial comic tale, famously adapted into Cole Porter's Kiss Me Kate and 10 Things I Hate About You, has divided and amused audiences for over 400 years in an unforgettable battle of wits.

Considered one of Shakespeare's most haunting tragic-comedies, The Winter's Tale is an in-depth analysis of the psychology of family and friendship, jealousy and love, art and nature, all illustrated in rich poetry. Based on Robert Greene's story Pandosto, the play tells the story of Leontes, king of Sicilia, and his childhood friend, Polixenes, king of Bohemia. In a jealous rage, Leontes mistakenly accuses Polixenes and his own his wife, Hermione, of adultery and her newborn daughter as illegitimate, casting her into the wilderness, causing their son to die of grief and Hermione to seemingly follow suit. With his family dead or believed dead, Leontes must face the tragic consequences of his actions. With unbridled honesty and the pain of love, the final act is one of Shakespeare's most moving reconciliation scenes.

HarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics. Power, corruption and betrayal are at the heart of Shakespeare's most well-known historical and political drama. As Julius Caesar moves closer to securing power for himself and is perceived by some as a threat to Roman citizens, his senators plot to bring about his downfall. Caesar's assassination leads to civil war rather than peace and the play explores the subsequent deaths of the conspirators Brutus and Cassius. Shakespeare's contemporaries would have spotted the playwright's attempts to use the shift from republican to imperial Rome to highlight the political situation of the Elizabethans at the time. Featuring some of the most powerfully resonant and rousing speeches of any of Shakespeare's plays, Julius Caesar remains one of his most well-loved historical tragedies.

HarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics. Hugely ambitious in its historical focus and vast geographical scope, Antony and Cleopatra is one of Shakespeare's most astonishing tragedies. The drama centres on the relationships between his main protagonists, Octavius Ceasar, Mark Antony and Cleopatra and the highly charged affair between Mark Antony and the Egyptian queen that forms the backdrop to the pervading theme of struggle between East and West throughout the play. The internal battle of personal emotion and duty that Antony experiences, and the dynamics of power and sexuality portrayed by Cleopatra give the play its dramatic tension. Rich and complex in its language and poetic in tone, Shakespeare shows how the politics of Rome ultimately cause disaster for a man who is torn between reason and passion.

King Lear is old but not wise. He loves the two daughters who secretly hate him. He hates the only daughter who really loves him. In time, he discovers his mistake. Has he learnt his lesson? Or will his proud and angry nature bring him even more sadness and pain?

William Shakespeare: Complete Plays collects all thirty-seven of the immortal Bard's comedies, tragedies and historical plays. In this volume all of Shakespeare's memorable characters — star-crossed lovers, majestic monarchs, wise fools, lovable rogues, treacherous villains, conflicted heroes, cagey heroines and creatures magical and mythic — strut and fret their hour upon the stage. These characters and the roles they play, have influenced virtually all literature written since. For readers who appreciate the emotional power of the written word, the heights of humour and the depths of drama that can be encompassed by a single type of literature, William Shakespeare: Complete Plays is an indispensable collection of timeless masterpieces.

In The Taming of the Shrew, Katharina learns to love Petruchio only after she has learnt to be an obedient wife. Romeo and Juliet’s love is destined to end in tragedy. In Twelfth Night, love is romantic but also painful, while in Othello love turns into jealousy. And in the final story, Antony and Cleopatra’s passionate love has tragic consequences.

A power-hungry Richard III, a remorseful Macbeth, a revengeful Prince Hamlet, a powerful Julius Caesar, and a ruthless and ambitious King Henry V: various aspects of power and ambition feature in these five stories based on plays by William Shakespeare.

After a long civil war between the Houses of Lancaster and York, England is enjoying a period of peace under King Edward IV. But Edward’s younger brother, Richard, resents Edward’s power, Richard begins to aspire secretly to the throne and decides to kill anyone he has to in order to become king.

Romeo and Juliet is one of the most famous love stories in the world. But it is more than a great love story. It is also about life and death, happiness and sadness, and the terrible hate between two great families. Shakespeare's beautiful tale is still as popular today as it was more than 400 years ago.

'Hail, Macbeth, who will be king one day'. On a cold Scottish heath, three witches make a prophecy. Inspired by their words and encouraged by his evil wife, Macbeth begins his trail of destruction to gain and keep the Scottish throne.

Since the late twentieth century, when scholarly attention began to focus on sexuality, collaboration and Shakespeare's late plays, The Two Noble Kinsmen has become an essential script. Turner and Tatspaugh's edition presents a strong case for taking the play more seriously now than ever before. A lively introduction discusses Shakespeare's craftsmanship in adapting a medieval tale for the Jacobean stage, the extent of co-authorship with John Fletcher, the rhetorical complexity of Shakespeare's late style, the themes of sexuality and friendship, and contemporary critical responses to the play. In addition to presenting a detailed history of performance, the edition calls attention to productions that have demonstrated the play's theatrical vitality and solved — or failed to solve — difficulties inherent in the text. Bringing the textual history completely up to date, the edition reflects renewed interest in The Two Noble Kinsmen, confirming it as a play for today.