Katharine Eisaman Maus

Eric Rasmussen

David M. Bevington

Lars Engle

Popular in their own time, the 27 plays included here—by Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson, John Webster, Thomas Middleton, among many others—reveal why these playwrights' achievements, like Shakespeare's, deserve reading, teaching, and performing afresh in our time. Edited by a team of exceptional scholars and teachers, this anthology opens an extraordinary tradition in drama to new readers and audiences.

A Norton Anthology

English Renaissance Drama

William Shakespeare

A balanced editorial approach, a highly respected editor, and comprehensive glosses, footnotes, and historical and cultural essays make this the most reader-friendly introduction to Shakespeare available today. The seventh edition of this comprehensive anthology addresses the two key issues confronted by readers approaching Shakespeare today: a lack of knowledge about the historical period and difficulty with the language of Shakespeare's plays. A richly illustrated general introduction offers insight into Shakespeare's England and background on the literary and cultural contexts in which Shakespeare wrote and produced plays. Each play is introduced by a descriptive essay designed to help the reader appreciate the cultural contexts and interpretive issues raised by the play -- without dictating their interpretations. Thoroughly revised and updated notes and glosses provide additional support to understanding the language of Shakespeare's time.

The Complete Works of Shakespeare

Medieval Drama

A collection of critical essays and commentary on Shakespeare's Hamlet.

A Collection of Critical Essays

Twentieth Century Interpretations of Hamlet

A Critical Approach to Topical Meaning

Tudor Drama and Politics

Barbara Gaines

This tragedy of doomed lovers from warring families has inspired poetic expression from young lovers the world over. The 300-year-old drama is perhaps Shakespeare's best-known work. The CliffsComplete Romeo and Juliet is a revised and expanded study edition. It contains Shakespeare's original play, a glossary, and expert commentary in a unique, 2-column format. To enhance your learning, notes and definitions appear directly opposite the line in which they occur, and a review section follows the play. This edition also introduces you to the life, works, and times of William Shakespeare.

Romeo and Juliet

Kathleen McLuskie

Based on the original and authoritative Revels texts, Plays on Women brings together four plays that dramatize the lives of women in Shakespeare’s England. Presenting both domestic tragedy and city comedy, the anthology depicts women as witty tricksters and heart-breaking victims, adulteresses and faithful wives. In each play, the women break out of familiar roles, challenging both theatrical and social convention to offer the pleasures of laughter, pathos and suspense. McLuskie's introduction uses the latest interdisciplinary research to explore the dynamic relationship between women, the theatre and the social world. The annotation unravels the complexities of language and performance that sustain the plays’ stunning theatrical power.

Anon, Arden of Faversham; Middleton and Dekker, The Roaring Girl; Middleton, A Chaste Maid in Cheapside; Heywood, A Woman Killed with Kindness

Plays On Women

A highly respected editor and Shakespearean scholar, David Bevington presents a brief version of The Complete Works of Shakespeare, 6/e wiih the new edition of The Necessary Shakespeare, 3/e. The third edition addresses the two key issues confronted by students approaching Shakespeare today: a lack of knowledge about the historical period and difficulty with the language of Shakespeare's plays. A richly illustrated general introduction offers insight into Shakespeare's England and background on the literary, social, and cultural contexts in which Shakespeare wrote and produced plays. Each play is introduced by a descriptive essay designed to help students appreciate the historical contexts and interpretive issues raised by the play, without dictating students' interpretations. Completely revised and updated notes and glosses support student readers line by line, paraphrasing Elizabethan expressions in clear and accessible contemporary language.

The Necessary Shakespeare

Shakespeare's Language of Gesture

Action Is Eloquence

Shakespeare's Histories

Shakespeare's Histories features all the scholarship and pedagogy of David Bevington's The Complete Works of Shakespeare in a genre-specific, paperback volume. Pulled from Bevington's popular and authoritative hardcover The Complete Works of Shakespeare, 5e, Shakespeare's Histories and three other genre volumes--Shakespeare's Tragedies, Shakespeare's Comedies, and Shakespeare's Romances and Poems--are available on their own or packaged in customized bundles (at a discount) for use in specialized courses. Shakespeare's Histories provides the same balanced editorial approach and proven apparatus that combine to make Bevington's Complete Works the most accessible collection available. A prestigious editorial board provides state-of-the-art scholarship and interpretative balance on each play. In-depth historical coverage helps students understand the cultural context behind each play, without dictating their reading of it. Extensive notes and glosses give students the support they need to understand Elizabethan language and idiomatic expressions. series, the Longman Cultural Editions, and the Longman-Penguin Program for discounted Penguin-Putnam titles packaged with Longman texts.

John Lyly

G. K. Hunter

Galatea and Midas are two of John Lyly's most engaging plays. Lyly took up the story of two young women, Galatea (or Gallathea) and Phillida who are dressed up in male clothes by their fathers so that they can avoid the requirement of the god Neptune that every year “the fairest and chastest virgin in all the country be sacrificed to a sea-monster.” Hiding together in the forest, the two maidens fall in love, each supposing the other to be a young man. Galatea has become the subject of considerable feminist critical study in recent years. Midas (1590) uses mythology in quite a different way, dramatizing two stories about King Midas in such a way as to fashion a satire of King Philip of Spain (and of any tyrant like him) for colossal greediness and folly. In the wake of the defeat of Philip's Armada fleet and its attempted invasion of England in 1588, this satire was calculated to win the approval of Queen Elizabeth and her court.

David M. Bevington

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