Books in Cambridge School Shakespeare series

Working in partnership with the RSC, this brand new series is ideal for introducing students to Shakespeare's plays. Using trusted and established RSC approaches, Shakespeare's plays come to life in the classroom and establish a deeper understanding and lasting appreciation of his work. Comprising the most popular plays used in schools, these full-colour editions include the RSC's active approaches to exploring the text, vibrant RSC performance photographs, page summaries, glosses, contextual information and much more. This unique series aims to motivate and inspire students in their early encounters with Shakespeare's plays whilst giving students confidence for all stages of their study of Shakespeare.

Since the rediscovery of Elizabethan stage conditions early this century, admiration for Measure for Measure has steadily risen. It is now a favorite with the critics and has attracted widely different styles of performance. At one extreme the play is seen as a religious allegory, at the other it has been interpreted as a comedy protesting against power and privilege. Brian Gibbons focuses on the unique tragi-comic experience of watching the play, the intensity and excitement offered by its dramatic rhythm, the reversals and surprises that shock the audience even to the end. The introduction describes the play's critical reception and stage history and how these have varied according to prevailing social, moral and religious issues, which were highly sensitive when Measure for Measure was written, and have remained so to the present day.

Working in partnership with the RSC, this brand new series is ideal for introducing students to Shakespeare's plays. Using trusted and established RSC approaches, Shakespeare's plays come to life in the classroom and establish a deeper understanding and lasting appreciation of his work. Comprising the most popular plays used in schools, these full-colour editions include the RSC's active approaches to exploring the text, vibrant RSC performance photographs, page summaries, glosses, contextual information and much more. This unique series aims to motivate and inspire students in their early encounters with Shakespeare's plays whilst giving students confidence for all stages of their study of Shakespeare.

For this updated edition of Shakespeare's most celebrated war play, Professor Gurr has added a new section to his introduction which considers recent critical and stage interpretations, especially concentrating on the 'secret' versus 'official' readings of the play. He analyses the play's double vision of Henry as both military hero and self-seeking individual. The appendices provide a comprehensive collection of source materials, while the stage history shows how subsequent centuries have received and adapted the play on the stage and in film. An updated reading list completes the edition.

The author offers a new approach to the text of the Second Part of King Henry IV, which he sees as an unplanned sequel to the First Part, itself a remake of an old, non-Shakespearean play. The Second Part deliberately exploits the popular success of Sir John Falstaff, introduced in Part One; the resulting rich humor gives a comic dimension to the play that makes it a unique blend of history, morality play and comedy. Among modern editions of the play this is the one most firmly based on the Quarto. Professor Melchiori presents an eminently actable text, by showing how Shakespeare's own choices are superior for practical purposes to suggested emendations, and by keeping interferences in the original stage directions to a minimum, in order to respect, as Shakespeare did, the players' freedom.

Working in partnership with the RSC, this brand new series is ideal for introducing students to Shakespeare's plays. Using trusted and established RSC approaches, Shakespeare's plays come to life in the classroom and establish a deeper understanding and lasting appreciation of his work. Comprising the most popular plays used in schools, these full-colour editions include the RSC's active approaches to exploring the text, vibrant RSC performance photographs, page summaries, glosses, contextual information and much more. This unique series aims to motivate and inspire students in their early encounters with Shakespeare's plays whilst giving students confidence for all stages of their study of Shakespeare.

Famous actors have appeared as this play's sparring lovers, Benedick and Beatrice, from David Garrick's time in the eighteenth century to the present. Angela Stock has added a new section to the Introduction where she reviews the romantic and darker, more cynical aspects of the play in the context of late twentieth-century stage, film and critical interpretations. She also tackles the critical fortunes of Hero and Claudio as they reflect the play's concerns with sexuality and misogyny, eavesdropping and deception. First Edition Hb (1988): 0-521-22152-8 First Edition Pb (1988): 0-521-29367-7

Blakemore Evans' performance history helps readers visualize the stage action of Romeo and Juliet and alerts them to difficulties in language, thought and staging. For this updated edition Thomas Moisan adds an account of important professional theatre productions and the large output of scholarly criticism on the play in recent years. The Reading List has been revised and augmented to reflect the edition's expanded coverage. First Edition Hb (1984): 0-521-22223-0 First Edition Pb (1984): 0-521-29405-3

King Richard III is one of Shakespeare's most popular and frequently-performed plays. Janis Lull's introduction to this new edition, which is based on the First Folio, emphasizes the play's tragic themes--individual identity, determinism and choice--and stresses the importance of women's roles. A thorough performance history of stage and film versions shows how the text has been cut, rewritten and reshaped by directors and actors to enhance the role of Richard at the expense of other parts, especially those of the women.