William Shakespeare: The Complete Works

by Shakespeare, William; Wells, Stanley; Taylor, Gary; Jowett, John; Montgomery, William; Schoenbaum, S.; Wells, Stanley

• ISBN13: 9780198129196
• ISBN10: 019812919X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1987-05-28
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

William Shakespeare: The Complete Works, published in 1986, is an entirely fresh edition of Shakespeare in which the original documents have been re-examined in every detail and edited according to the most up-to-date findings of textual scholarship. It is here presented in a compact format. There are many original features. The works are given in a newly considered chronological order, original titles are restored, and the canon has been re-thought, permitting the inclusion of The Two Noble Kinsmen and some unfamiliar short poems. For the first time, King Lear is printed both as Shakespeare originally wrote it and as he revised it some years later. Other plays, too, are based on what new research identifies as Shakespeare's revised, more theatrical text. Stage directions have been reconsidered in the light of the plays' original staging, and new directions for essential action added. Spelling and punctuation are modernized from the original texts on freshly thought principles. There is an informative General Introduction and a glossary, along with a brief introduction to each work, providing essential background. The Complete Oxford Shakespeare brings the modern reader closer to Shakespeare's plays as they were first acted than has ever before been possible. Book jacket.

Author Biography

Stanley Wells Chairman of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust and Vice-Chairman of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, he is also Emeritus Professor of Shakespeare Studies at the University of Birmingham Gary Taylor is Director of the Hudson Strode Program in Renaissance Studies at the University of Alabama John Jowett is Lecturer in English at the University of Glasgow William Montgomery is a Shakespeare scholar with a D.Phil from the University of Oxford

Table of Contents

Alphabetical List of Contents	p. xi
List of Illustrations	p. xiii
General Introduction	p. xv
Contemporary Allusions to Shakespeare	p. xl
Commendatory Poems and Prefaces	p. xliii
The Complete Works
The Two Gentlemen of Verona	p. 1
The Taming of the Shrew	p. 25
The First Part of the Contention of the Two Famous Houses of York and Lancaster (2 Henry VI)	p. 55
The True Tragedy of Richard Duke of York and the Good King Henry the Sixth (3 Henry VI)	p. 91
The Most Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus	p. 125
The First Part of Henry the Sixth	p. 153
The Tragedy of King Richard the Third	p. 183
Venus and Adonis	p. 223
The Rape of Lucrece	p. 237
The Comedy of Errors	p. 257
Love's Labour's Lost	p. 279
Love's Labour's Won: A Brief Account	p. 309
A Midsummer Night's Dream	p. 311
The Most Excellent and Lamentable Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet	p. 335
The Tragedy of King Richard the Second	p. 367
The Life and Death of King John	p. 397
The Comical History of the Merchant of Venice, or Otherwise Called the Jew of Venice	p. 425
The History of Henry the Fourth (1 Henry IV)	p. 453
The Merry Wives of Windsor	p. 483
The Second Part of Henry the Fourth	p. 509
Much Ado About Nothing	p. 541
The Life of Henry the Fifth	p. 567
The Tragedy of Julius Caesar	p. 599
As You Like It	p. 627
The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark	p. 653
Twelfth Night, or What You Will	p. 691
Troilus and Cressida	p. 715
Sonnets and 'A Lover's Complaint'	p. 749
Various Poems	p. 777
Sir Thomas More: Passages Attributed to Shakespeare	p. 785
Measure for Measure	p. 789
The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice	p. 819
All's Well That Ends Well	p. 855
The Life of Timon of Athens	p. 883
The History of King Lear: The Quarto Text	p. 909
The Tragedy of King Lear: The Folio Text	p. 943
The Tragedy of Macbeth	p. 975
The Tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra	p. 1001
Pericles, Prince of Tyre: A Reconstructed Text	p. 1037
The Tragedy of Coriolanus	p. 1065
The Winter's Tale	p. 1101
Cymbeline, King of Britain	p. 1131
The Tempest	p. 1167
Cardenio: A Brief Account	p. 1191
All Is True (Henry VIII)	p. 1193
The Two Noble Kinsmen	p. 1225
Select Glossary	p. 1257
Index of First Lines of the Sonnets	p. 1273
Table of Contents provided by Rittenhouse. All Rights Reserved.