Shakespeare on Page and Stage Selected Essays

by Wells, Stanley; Edmondson, Paul

• ISBN13: 9780198786542
• ISBN10: 0198786549
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2016-11-01
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

This volume presents a winning selection of the very best essays from the long and distinguished career of Stanley Wells, one of the most well-known and respected Shakespeare scholars in the world. Wells's accomplishments include editing the entire canon of Shakespeare plays for the ground-breaking Oxford Shakespeare and over his lifetime, Wells has made significant contributions to debates over literary criticism of the works, genre study, textual theory, Shakespeare's afterlife in the theatre, and contemporary performance. The volume is introduced by Peter Holland and its thirty chapters are divided into themed sections: "Shakespearian Influences," "Essays on Particular Works," "Shakespeare in the Theatre," and "Shakespeare's Text." An afterword by Margreta de Grazia concludes the volume.

Author Biography

Stanley Wells, described by Roy Hattersley as "our greatest authority on Shakespeare's life and work," is Honorary President of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Emeritus Professor of Shakespeare Studies of the University of Birmingham, and Honorary Emeritus Governor of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. For nearly 20 years, he was the editor of the annual Shakespeare Survey and writes for the TLS and many other publications. He has edited The New Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare Studies and is General Editor (with Gary Taylor) of The Complete Oxford Shakespeare and co-author of William Shakespeare: A Textual Companion. His most recent books are Shakespeare For All Time, Looking for Sex in Shakespeare, Shakespeare, Sex, and Love, and Great Shakespeare Actors.

Table of Contents

Introduction
Shakespearian Influences
1. Shakespeare: Man of the European Renaissance
2. Tales from Shakespeare
Essays on Particular Works
3. The Failure of The Two Gentlemen of Verona
4. The Taming of the Shrew and King Lear: A Structural Comparison
5. The Integration of Violent Action in Titus Andronicus
6. The Challenges of Romeo and Juliet
7. The Uses of Inconsequentiality (Romeo and Juliet)
8. Laments in Richard II
9. A Midsummer Night's Dream Revisited
10. Translations in A Midsummer Night's Dream
11. The Division of the Kingdoms (King Lear)
12. Points of Stagecraft in The Tempest
13. My Name is Will (The Sonnets)
14. Shakespeare Without Sources
15. Boys Should be Girls: Shakespeare s Female Roles and the Boy Players
Shakespeare in the Theatre
16. Staging Shakespeare s Ghosts
17. Apparitions and Dream-Visions in Shakespeare
18. Shakespeare in Planche s Extravaganzas
19. Shakespeare in Max Beerbohm s Theatre Criticism
20. Shakespeare in Leigh Hunt s Theatre Criticism
21. Shakespeare in William Hazlitt s Theatre Criticism
Writing about Performance: Some Royal Shakespeares
22. Peter Hall s Coriolanus
23. Peter Hall s Hamlet
24. John Barton s Twelfth Night
25. John Barton s Richard II
Shakespeare s Text
26. On Being A General Editor
27. Editorial Treatment of Foul-Paper Texts: Much Ado About Nothing as Test Case
28. Money in Shakespeare s Comedies
29. To Read a Play: The Problem of Editorial Intervention
Select Bibliography