The Cambridge Introduction to Shakespeare

Half-title......Page 3
Series-title......Page 4
Title......Page 5
Copyright......Page 6
Contents......Page 7
Tables......Page 10
Preface......Page 11
Juliet’s balcony, Verona......Page 13
Shakespeare’s realism?......Page 15
Shakespeare’s ‘unreal’ characters......Page 16
Reading Shakespeare’s characters on the page......Page 18
Embodying Shakespeare’s characters on stage......Page 19
Doubling on the early modern stage......Page 20
Writing for particular actors......Page 23
Naming and individuality......Page 24
Characters as individuals or as inter-relationships......Page 26
Character: interior or exterior?......Page 29
Character: where next?......Page 31
Measure for Measure: staging silence......Page 35
‘Going back to the text’: the challenge of performance......Page 38
Performance interpretations: The Taming of the Shrew......Page 39
Topical performance: the plays in different theatrical contexts......Page 42
Citing performances......Page 44
Using film......Page 45
Using film comparatively: Macbeth......Page 47
Hamlet: ‘To be or not to be’......Page 51
Adaptations: Shakespearean enough?......Page 53
Performance: where next?......Page 54
Shakespeare’s hand......Page 58
So what did Shakespeare write?......Page 59
Stage to page......Page 60
Quartos and Folio......Page 61
Editing as interpretation......Page 62
The job of the editor: the example of Richard II......Page 65
Stage directions......Page 69
Speech prefixes......Page 72
The job of the editor: the example of King Lear......Page 73
Texts: where next?......Page 77
‘In a double sense’ (Macbeth 5.7.50)......Page 83
Did anyone really talk like that?......Page 84
Playing with language......Page 89
Language of the play / language of the person......Page 91
Prose and verse......Page 93
Linguistic shifts: 1 Henry IV......Page 94
Shakespeare’s verse......Page 96
Linguistic variation: A Midsummer Night’s Dream......Page 97
Language: where next?......Page 99
Finding the heart of the play......Page 102
Shakespeare’s genres: dynamic, not static......Page 105
Tragedy and comedy......Page 106
Tragedy – expanding the genre......Page 107
Comedy – expanding the genre......Page 110
History: is this a fixed genre?......Page 113
Structuring scenes: Much Ado About Nothing......Page 115
Juxtaposing scenes, activating ironies: Henry V......Page 116
Showing v. telling......Page 118
Structure: where next?......Page 119
Tragedy......Page 120
Comedy......Page 121
Antony and Cleopatra and Plutarch......Page 125
Originality: was Shakespeare a plagiarist?......Page 128
Shakespeare at work: the intentional fallacy?......Page 130
The source bites back: Romeo and Juliet and The Winter’s Tale......Page 132
The strong poet? King Lear......Page 139
Sources: where next?......Page 143
Politic picklocks: interpreting topically......Page 146
History plays: political Shakespeare?......Page 148
History plays: Shakespeare as propagandist?......Page 150
Hamlet as history play?......Page 152
Jacobean patronage: King Lear and Macbeth......Page 154
Historical specificity: gender roles......Page 156
Race and Othello......Page 160
History: where next?......Page 165
Bibliography......Page 169
Index......Page 174