Product Description

The new Oxford edition of Shakespeare's complete works reconsiders every detail of their text and presentation in the light of modern scholarship. The nature and authority of the early documents are re-examined, and the canon and chronological order of composition freshly established. Spelling and punctuation are modernized, and there is a brief introduction to each work, as well as an illuminating and informative General Introduction. OUP and Shakespeare's Globe Theatre this year embark on an official partnership to celebrate the plays both in print and performance - this reissued and rejacketed edition of the complete works underscores the commitment.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #567736 in Books
• Published on: 1998-09-10
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 325 pages

About the Author
Alphabetical List of Contents List of Illustrations General Introduction Contemporary Allusions to Shakespeare Commendatory Poems and Prefaces Chapter 1 - The Two Gentlemen of Verona Chapter 2 - The Taming of the Shrew Chapter 3 - The First Part of the Contention of the Two Famous Houses of York and Lancaster (2 Henry VI) Chapter 4 - The True Tragedy of Richard Duke of York and the Good King Henry the Sixth (3 Henry VI) Chapter 5 - The Most Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus Chapter 6 - The First Part of Henry the Sixth Chapter 7 - The Tragedy of King Richard the Third Chapter 8 - Venus and Adonis Chapter 9 - The Rape of Lucrece Chapter 10 - The Comedy of Errors Chapter 11 - Love's Labour's Lost Chapter 12 - Love's Labour's Won: A Brief Account Chapter 13 - A Midsummer Night's Dream Chapter 14 - The Most Excellent and Lamentable Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet Chapter 15 - The Tragedy of King Richard the Second Chapter 16 - The Life and Death of King John Chapter 17 - The Comical History of the Merchant of Venice, or Otherwise Called the Jew of Venice Chapter 18 - The History of Henry the Fourth (1 Henry IV) Chapter 19 - The Merry Wives of Windsor Chapter 20 - The Second Part of Henry the Fourth Chapter 21 - Much Ado About Nothing Chapter 22 - The Life of Henry the Fifth Chapter 23 - The Tragedy of Julius Caesar Chapter 24 - As You Like It Chapter 25 - The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark Chapter 26 - Twelfth Night, or What You Will Chapter 27 - Troilus and Cressida Chapter 28 - Sonnets and `A Lover's Complaint' Chapter 29 - Various Poems Chapter 30 - Sir Thomas More: Passages Attributed to Shakespeare Chapter 31 - Measure for Measure Chapter 32 - The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice Chapter 33 - All's Well That Ends Well Chapter 34 - The Life of Timon of Athens Chapter 35 - The History of King Lear: The Quarto Text Chapter 36 - The Tragedy of King Lear: The Folio Text Chapter 37 - The Tragedy of Macbeth Chapter 38 - The Tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra Chapter 39 - Pericles, Prince of Tyre: A Reconstructed Text Chapter 40 - The Tragedy of Coriolanus Chapter 41 - The Winter's Tale Chapter 42 - Cymbeline, King of Britain Chapter 43 - The Tempest Chapter 44 - CardenioR: A Brief Account Chapter 45 - All Is True (Henry VIII) Chapter 46 - The Two Noble Kinsmen Select Glossary Index of First Lines of the Sonnets

Customer Reviews

All the World's A Stage.
The 1598 loss of their theater's lease should have been a major blow to the Lord Chamberlain's Men, one of Elizabethan England's premier acting troupes, who had gained even more popularity by teaming up with one Will Shakespeare, a Warwickshire glover's son come to London some six years earlier in pursuit of his Muse, leaving behind a wife and three children; daughter Susanna, born but seven months into his marriage, and twins Hamnet and Judith, who'd followed two years later. Yet, what to another company might have spelled "present death" only brought greater fame and fortune to the one boasting, in addition to Master Shakespeare's talents, those of Richard Burbage: not only a superb tragedian but also his troupe's financier and, together with brother Cuthbert, happily able to afford the construction of a new theater in Bankside, on the opposite side of the River Thames. Prophetically, the company named their new home "The Globe" and endowed it with a motto which, in approximate translation, audiences of one of the first plays produced there - "As You Like It" - would soon also hear pronounced from the stage, and which sums up the essence of the Bard's plays better than anything else: "Totus mundus agit histrionem" - "All the world's a stage."

The new playhouse's name and motto were apposite not only because the era did indeed consider a stage a model of the world (the area above was referred to as heaven, the area below as hell, and characters would often appear accordingly: as such, Hamlet's father is heard crying "below [stage]" after his encounter with the Prince), but first and foremost because Shakespeare's plays themselves, individually as well as collectively, represent a microcosm of human relationships and behavior virtually unparalleled to this day: Laced with murderous schemes, revenge, and the search for justice, love, and peace of mind, but also comedy, all-too-human fallibility and great nobility of spirit, they delve into the human mind's darkest recesses and soar to its greatest heights; exploring greed, envy, ambition, guilt, remorse and pure evil, next to compassion, generosity, humility, innocence, fidelity, cleverness, boundless cheers and optimism; all interwoven in timeless plots unmatched in wit, variety, construction, and richness of characters.

Yet, for all this, the biggest difficulty remaining to modern editors and readers alike is that while Shakespeare himself didn't seek the publication of his plays, in the absence of anything approximating modern copyright laws, he was unable to prevent their publication by others, in so-called "quarto" editions, often based on unreliable transcripts made during or after a performance. Only after his death, in 1623, his former fellow-actors John Hemmings and Henry Condell published 37 of his plays "cured and perfect of their limbs" - i.e., restored to their author's true intentions - in a volume since referred to as the "First Folio."

Alas, authoritative weight though it has, even the latter doesn't conclusively answer what the Bard intended as the final version of these 37 plays. For one thing, research shows that even some of the Folio texts were edited by others; most prominently so "Macbeth," where Thomas Middleton inserted, inter alia, the witch queen Hecate as an additional character. Secondly, quarto editions of several plays published prior to the "First Folio" (especially of "Henry IV Part 2," "Hamlet," "Troilus and Cressida," "Othello," and "King Lear") are widely believed to represent earlier (or rival) drafts written by Shakespeare himself, and thus accorded considerable authoritative weight of their own. Often, these plays are therefore presented (both in print and on stage) by "conflating" both versions' texts. In the interest of purity, the editors of this particular volume have eschewed that approach, choosing instead to reproduce the Folio text throughout (with gently modernized spelling), because this was probably the text originally used on stage, and appending the passages most frequently added from the rivaling quartos at the end of the respective plays. Thus, this edition's reader will find Hamlet musing in "To be, or not to be" about "enterprises of great pith and moment" whose currents "turn awry and lose the name of action" (not "of great pitch and moment," as in the 1604 "Second Quarto"); he will, however, have to consult the appendix to find the Prince's reflections on that "stamp of one defect" so prominently featuring in Sir Laurence Olivier's movie, or his vows of "bloody thoughts" after encountering Fortinbras. Only in the case of "Lear," the editors chose to fully include both rivaling versions - that of the First Folio and that of the 1608 quarto - because here, the omission of entire scenes and reassignment of numerous pieces of dialogue essentially transforms the Folio text into a new play vis-a-vis the 1608 quarto.

As painstakingly researched and an as obvious labor of love as this work's first edition, the second edition moreover restores the plays' original titles ("All Is True" instead of "Henry VIII," etc.), and also contains Shakespeare's long poems and sonnets, brief accounts on the lost plays ("Cardenio," "Love's Labour's Won"), and - with appropriate caveats - the texts of works of only partial/uncertain attribution, such as "The Two Noble Kinsmen," sundry poetry, and (for the first time) "Edward III," as well as the editorially and topically so problematic "Sir Thomas More."

Background and supplemental materials include introductions to Shakespeare's life, career and language and on the Elizabethan theater, a user's guide, a list of contemporary references to the Bard, commendatory poems and prefaces of his works (including those of the "First Folio"), a glossary, an ample reading list, as well as a short introduction to each work. At well over 1000 pages a brick even in paperback format, this isn't the place to turn for a complete scholarly review of any given play - for that, the reader is well-advised to consult this volume's "Textual Companion" or one of the many excellent editions of the individual plays - but a marvelously-presented one-volume resource on the legacy of the playwright whose works, as already friendly rival Ben Jonson rightly prophesied, would last "for all time."