Synopses & Reviews
Hailed by
The Washington Post as "a definitive synthesis of the best editions" and by
The Times of London as "a monument to Shakespearean scholarship,"
The Oxford Shakespeare is the ultimate anthology of the Bard's work: the most authoritative edition of the plays and poems ever published.
Now, almost two decades after the original volume, Oxford is proud to announce a thoroughly updated second edition, including for the first time the texts of The Reign of Edward III and Sir Thomas More, recognizing these two plays officially as authentic works by Shakespeare. This beautiful collection is the product of years of full-time research by a team of British and American scholars and represents the most thorough examination ever undertaken of the nature and authority of Shakespeare's work. The editors reconsidered every detail of the text in the light of modern scholarship and they thoroughly re-examined the earliest printed versions of the plays, firmly establishing the canon and chronological order of composition. All stage directions have been reconsidered in light of original staging, and many new directions for essential action have been added. This superb volume also features a brief introduction to each work as well as an illuminating General Introduction. Finally, the editors have added a wealth of secondary material, including an essay on language, a list of contemporary allusions to Shakespeare, an index of Shakespearean characters, a glossary, a consolidated bibliography, and an index of first lines of the Sonnets.
Compiled by the world's leading authorities, packed with information, and attractively designed, The Oxford Shakespeare is the gold standard of Shakespearean anthologies.
Review
"The most ambitious edition of the works ever attempted."--
Times Higher Education SupplementReview
"State-of-the-art scholarship...has come to stand as the edition of record of Shakespeare's poems and plays."--San Diego Union-Tribune
"Includes stage directions, introductions, and a trove of other scholarly goodies. A beauty."--Library Journal (starred review)
Synopsis
Here are all of Shakespeare's plays and poems in a compact edition that fits nearly onto your bookshelf or comfortably in your lap. And, as if all of the Bard were not enough, this reissue of an Oxford Classic offers something more: editions of the plays in their theatrical versions, as they were originally performed on the Elizabethan stage. This edition also features a brief introduction to each work, as well as an illuminating General Introduction; reconsiders every detail of the text and presentation of Shakespeare's complete works in the light of modern scholarship; re-examines the nature and authority of the early documents, and freshly establishes the canon and chronological order of composition; and modernizes spelling and punctuation to make the works more accessible to modern readers, without ever altering their original language or meter.
The Times Higher Education Supplement called William Shakespeare: The Complete Works "the most ambitious edition of the works ever attempted," and The Times (London) hailed it as "a monument to Shakespearean scholarship." For scholars and general readers alike, this is a must-have collection for your home library.
About the Author
Stanley Wells is Emeritus Professor of Shakespeare Studies at the University of Birmingham, the Chairman of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, and Vice-Chairman of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre.
Gary Taylor is Professor in the English Department at the University of Alabama.
John Jowett is Associate General Editor of the Oxford Collected Works of Thomas Middleton and co-author of
Shakespeare Reshaped 1606-23.
William Montgomery works for the
Guardian newspaper.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Contemporary Allusions to Shakespeare
Commendatory Poems and Prefaces (1599-1640)
1. The Two Gentlemen of Verona
2. The Taming of the Shrew
3. The First Part of the Contention of the Two Famous Houses of York and Lancaster (2 Henry VI)
4. The True Tragedy of Richard Duke of York and the Good King Henry the Sixth (3 Henry VI)
5. The First Part of Henry the Sixth
6. The Most Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus
7. The Tragedy of King Richard the Third
8. Venus and Adonis
9. The Rape of Lucrece
10. The Reign of King Edward the Third
11. The Comedy of Errors
12. Love's Labour's Lost
13. Love's Labour's Won: A Brief Account
14. The Tragedy of King Richard the Second
15. The Most Excellent and Lamentable Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
16. A Midsummer Night's Dream
17. The Life and Death of King John
18. The Comical History of The Merchant of Venice, or Otherwise Called the Jew of Venice
19. The History of Henry the Fourth (1 Henry IV)
20. The Merry Wives of Windsor
21. The Second Part of Henry the Fourth (2 Henry IV)
22. Much Ado About Nothing
23. The Life of Henry the Fifth
24. The Tragedy of Julius Caesar
25. As You Like It
26. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
27. Twelfth Night, or What You Will
28. Troilus and Cressida
29. Sonnets and 'A Lover's Complaint'
30. Various Poems
31. Sir Thomas More
32. Measure for Measure
33. The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice
34. The Life of Timon of Athens
35. The History of King Lear: The Quarto Text
36. The Tragedy of Macbeth
37. The Tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra
38. All's Well That Ends Well
39. Pericles, Prince of Tyre: A Reconstructed Text
40. The Tragedy of Coriolanus
41. The Winter's Tale
42. The Tragedy of King Lear: The Folio Text
43. Cymbeline, King of Britain
44. The Tempest
45. Cardenio: A Brief Account
46. All Is True (Henry VIII)
47. The Two Noble Kinsmen
Select Glossary