THE RSC SHAKESPEARE COMPLETE WORKS

Contents

Preface

General Introduction by Jonathan Bate

Shakespeare Our Perennial Contemporary

Shakespeare’s Debut: The “Upstart Crow”

The Back Story: Shakespeare of Stratford

The Playhouses

Plague and Poetry

The Lord Chamberlain’s Man

The Ensemble at Work

“Dangerous Matter”: Politics and Religion

The King’s Man

The Great Feast of Languages

Cult and Heresy

The First Folio Restored

User’s Guide

Preliminary Pages of the First Folio

Foreword by Michael Boyd, Artistic Director, Royal Shakespeare Company

William Shakespeare: Complete Works with Introductions and “Key Facts” by Jonathan Bate

Comedies

The Tempest
The Two Gentlemen of Verona
The Merry Wives of Windsor
Measure for Measure
The Comedy of Errors
Much Ado About Nothing
Love’s Labour’s Lost
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
The Merchant of Venice
As You Like It
The Taming of the Shrew
All’s Well That Ends Well
Twelfth Night, or What You Will
The Winter’s Tale

Histories

The Life and Death of King John
The Life and Death of King Richard the Second
The First Part of Henry the Fourth, with the Life and Death of Henry surnamed Hotspur
The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, Containing His Death and the Coronation of King Henry the Fifth
The Life of Henry the Fifth
The First Part of Henry the Sixth
The Second Part of Henry the Sixth, with the Death of the Good Duke Humphrey
The Third Part of Henry the Sixth, with the Death of the Duke of York
The Tragedy of Richard the Third, with the Landing of Earl Richmond and the Battle at Bosworth Field
The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eighth

Tragedies

The Tragedy of Troilus and Cressida
The Tragedy of Coriolanus
The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus
The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
The Life of Timon of Athens
The Tragedy of Julius Caesar
The Tragedy of Macbeth
The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
The Tragedy of King Lear
The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice
The Tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra
The Tragedy of Cymbeline

Plays Not in the First Folio

Pericles, Prince of Tyre, by William Shakespeare and George Wilkins
The Two Noble Kinsmen, by William Shakespeare and John Fletcher

Poems and Sonnets

Venus and Adonis
The Rape of Lucrece
To the Queen
“Let the Bird of Loudest Lay” (also known as “The Phoenix and Turtle”)
Shakespeare’s Sonnets

A Scene for Sir Thomas More

(introduction, transcription, and modernized text by Eric Rasmussen)

Charts

Shakespeare’s Works: A Conjectural Chronology
The Houses of York and Lancaster: A Genealogy
Kings and Queens of England: From the History Plays to Shakespeare’s Lifetime
The History Behind the Histories: A Chronology
The History Behind the Tragedies: A Chronology

Acknowledgments

Acknowledgments for Illustrations/Photographs

Index of Plays and Poems