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Books in Cambridge School Shakespeare series

  • The Second Part of King Henry IV

    William Shakespeare, Giorgio Melchiori

    Hardcover (Cambridge University Press, Nov. 24, 1989)
    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.
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  • The Sonnets Audio Cassette Set

    William Shakespeare, Naxos AudioBooks, Alex Jennings

    Audio Cassette (Cambridge University Press, March 28, 1998)
    Alex Jennings will be the reader for this unabridged recording of the The Sonnets.
  • King Richard III

    William Shakespeare, Janis Lull

    Hardcover (Cambridge University Press, Dec. 28, 1999)
    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.
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  • The Tragedy of King Lear

    William Shakespeare, Jay L. Halio

    Hardcover (Cambridge University Press, Oct. 30, 1992)
    This is the first fully annotated, critical edition of King Lear to appear for forty years. It includes a comprehensive account of Shakespeare's sources and the literary, political, and folkloric influences at work in the play, a detailed reading of the action, and a substantial stage history of major productions. Jay Halio is concerned to clarify, for those approaching the play for the first time, the vexed question of its textual history. Unlike previous editions, his does not present a conflation of the Quarto and the Folio. Accepting that we have two versions of equal authority, the one derived from Shakespeare's rough drafts, the other from a manuscript used in the playhouses during the seventeenth century, Professor Halio chooses the Folio as the text for this edition. He explains the differences between the two versions and alerts the reader to the rival claims of the Quarto by means of a sampling of parallel passages in the introduction and by an appendix which contains annotated passages unique to the Quarto.
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  • King Henry V

    William Shakespeare, Andrew Gurr

    Hardcover (Cambridge University Press, Aug. 28, 1992)
    This new edition of Shakespeare's most celebrated war play points to the many inconsistencies in the presentation of Henry V. Andrew Gurr's substantial introduction explains the play as a reaction to the decade of war which preceded its writing, and analyses the play's double vision of Henry as both military hero and self-seeking individual. Professor Gurr shows how the patriotic declarations of the Chorus are contradicted by the play's action. He places the play's more controversial sequences in the context of Elizabethan thought, in particular the studies of the laws and morality of war written in the years before Henry V. He also studies the variety of language and dialect in the play. The appendices summarise Shakespeare's debt to his dramatic and historical sources, while the stage history shows how subsequent centuries have received and adapted the play on the stage and in film.
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  • All's Well that Ends Well

    William Shakespeare, Russell Fraser

    Hardcover (Cambridge University Press, Jan. 31, 1986)
    An international team of scholars offers: • modernised, easily accessible texts • ample but unobtrusive academic guidance • attention to the theatrical qualities of each play and its stage history • informative illustrations, including reconstructions of early performances This play has attracted unprecedented interest in recent times. Professor Fraser takes account of its history, in which neglect and unpopularity have been important features, and discusses such reactions and the reasons for them. He argues for a play which is a powerful and often disconcerting blend of darkness and comedy, faults and virtues, failing and forgiveness. Beneath the fluctuating imagery there is a constant sexual undercurrent which compels unusual critical attention.
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  • Romeo and Juliet

    William Shakespeare

    Paperback (Thomas Nelson & Sons, Sept. 3, 1938)
    None
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  • The Comedy of Errors

    William Shakespeare, T. S. Dorsch

    Hardcover (Cambridge University Press, July 29, 1988)
    This play has been popular on the stage during the last three centuries and has proved itself admirably suited to adaptation as pure farce and musical spectacle. Professor Dorsch's account of staging pays special attention to the earliest known performance at Gray's Inn Hall during the Christmas revels of 1594. His full discussion of the classical and romance elements of the sources is followed by sections on characterisation and language which reveal the variety of pace and diction in the play, Shakespeare's metrical versatility and his use of imagery.
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  • As You Like It

    William Shakespeare, Michael Hattaway

    Hardcover (Cambridge University Press, Dec. 28, 2000)
    Shakespeare's As You Like It can appear bright or somber in performance: a feast of language and a delight for comic actors; or a risk-taking exploration of gender roles. This edition offers an account of what makes the play both innocent and dangerous, mapping the complexities of its setting (a no-man's-land related to both France and England) and giving an ample commentary on its language and an analytical account of performance.
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  • The Merry Wives of Windsor

    William Shakespeare, David Crane

    Hardcover (Cambridge University Press, June 28, 1997)
    This new edition of Shakespeare's Merry Wives of Windsor focuses at every point on a theatrical understanding of the play. While emphasizing the liveliness of the play in stage terms, David Crane also claims that this citizen comedy needs to be taken much more seriously than in the past, as an expression of Shakespeare's fundamental understanding of human life, conveyed centrally in the character of Falstaff. In the process he also examines Shakespeare's free and vigorous use of different linguistic worlds within the play.
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  • Othello Set of 3 Audio Cassettes

    William Shakespeare, Naxos AudioBooks

    Audio Cassette (Cambridge University Press, Jan. 29, 2001)
    A full professional cast, starring Hugh Quarshie in the title role, records the complete, unabridged New Cambridge Shakespeare text of Othello, with sound effects and accompanying music. The set of three cassettes or CDs is accompanied by notes and a synopsis of the play.
  • Hamlet, Prince of Denmark Audio Cassette Set

    William Shakespeare, Naxos AudioBooks

    Audio Cassette (Cambridge University Press, Nov. 28, 1997)
    The cast of this unabridged version of Hamlet includes Anton Lesser who plays Hamlet, Edward de Souza, Susan Engel, Emma Fielding and Heathcote Williams.