Shakespeare · A Complete Introduction by Scott, Michael -- Read -- Imperial Library of Trantor

Index

Cover Title Dedication Acknowledgements Contents Preface 1 Releasing Shakespeare

Shakespeare the entertainer Shakespeare the businessman Shakespeare through time

2 The framing of Shakespearean comedy: The Comedy of Errors (1594)

The plot of the play The structure of the play

3 Critical perspectives 1: Neoclassical and Romantic approaches

The seventeenth century The eighteenth century Romanticism

4 A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1595–6) and Romeo and Juliet (1595–6)

A Midsummer Night’s Dream Romeo and Juliet From dream to nightmare

5 Shakespeare’s poetic and theatrical language

The iambic pentameter and the sonnet form A muse of fire Body and stage language Forms of communication Music and song The perils of over-analysis

6 Love’s Labour’s Lost (1595) and The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1591–2)

Understanding the plays’ structure Love’s Labour’s Lost The Two Gentlemen of Verona

7 Living up to its title: As You Like It (1599–1600)

Troubled times Sex and sexual titillation In the Forest of Arden The structure of the play

8 Twelfth Night; or, What You Will (1601)

Carpe diem ‘What if?’ Creating and animating a tableau ‘This is I’ ‘That that is, is’

9 Critical perspectives 2: Theatrical Influences on Shakespeare in performance and interpretation

The empty space Acting style Film and television The multi-conscious apprehension of the audience Recreating the Shakespearean stage

10 Much Ado About Nothing (1598–9) and The Taming of the Shrew (1589–92?)

Much Ado About Nothing The Taming of the Shrew

11 The Merchant of Venice (1596–8)

Confronting or pandering to anti-Semitic prejudices? Flesh and blood The Christian context The mercantile currency Deception and structure

12 Critical perspectives 3: Reading history, writing history and the English history plays

The Elizabethan fashion for history plays History or tragedy? Critical questioning Sharp diffractions of light in Shakespearean studies History and politics Self-fashioning

13 The English history plays 1: The Henry VI plays (1591–2); Richard III (1592–4); King John (1595–7)

King Henry VI parts 1-3 Counterpointing and juxtapositioning Richard III King John

14 The English history plays 2: Richard II (1595–6)

The anointed king Queen Elizabeth and Shakespeare’s Richard II

15 The English history plays 3, plus a comedy: 1 Henry IV (1596–7); 2 Henry IV (1597–8); Henry V (1599); and The Merry Wives of Windsor (1597–1601)

The Henry IV plays Henry V The Merry Wives of Windsor

16 Critical perspectives 4: Tragedy – some modern critical challenges; Titus Andronicus (1591–2)

Aristotle The influence of A. C. Bradley Text and performance Meaning by Shakespeare The individual and society A cruel play for cruel ages: Titus Andronicus

17 Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (1600–1601)

The structure of the play Memory and remembrance Carnal sin To be, or not to be Renaissance humanism, political pragmatism and the theatre

18 Othello (1604)

Othello’s credulity Stereotypes Othello the outsider Craftsmanship Iago’s motivation Truth and falsehood Who is the protagonist?

19 King Lear (1605–6)

Structure and emblem The test Telling the truth Goneril and Regan Parallel plots The heath Interactive narrative Questions of identity The recognition scenes

20 Macbeth (1606)

What is a traitor? Macbeth and interpretation Hell’s gate Temptation and conscience ‘Unsex me here’ Consequences Signifying nothing

21 Critical perspectives 5: Searching for and interpreting the text

‘Good’ and ‘bad’ quartos and the First Folio Different kinds of Hamlet Original performance Modern adaptations Editorial decisions Aligning plays with events Nostalgia Interpretation and performance

22 Greeks and Romans 1: Timon of Athens (1605) and Troilus and Cressida (1601–2)

Timon of Athens Troilus and Cressida

23 Greeks and Romans 2: Julius Caesar (1599); Antony and Cleopatra (1606–7); Coriolanus (1608)

The structure of the plays Merging stage and audience Elizabethan contemporary issues Manipulation of perception The domestic and the public The personal and the political Challenging the audience

24 Critical perspectives 6: Some ‘isms’; a glossary; and selected biographies

Some definitions of ‘isms’ Glossary Selected recent biographies

25 All’s Well That Ends Well (1605) and Measure for Measure (1604)

All’s Well That Ends Well Measure for Measure

26 Cymbeline (1609–10) and a note on the poems

The genre debate Provenance Structural convention and innovation The dirge for Fidele Shakespeare’s poems

27 The Tempest (1611) and the collaborative plays: Henry VIII (1613); The Two Noble Kinsmen (1613–4); Pericles (1608); and The Shakespeare Apocrypha

Henry VIII The Two Noble Kinsmen Cardenio/Double Falsehood (?) The Shakespeare Apocrypha Pericles, Prince of Tyre The Tempest

28 The Winter’s Tale (1610–11)

An ‘improbable fiction’ The impact of history on the play Time Spring The art of grafting Recognition Autolycus The theatrical wonder

Conclusion Appendices

1 Dates of Shakespeare’s works 2 Some key dates, 1485–1633 3 The English monarchs, 1154–1649 4 Bibliography and further reading

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