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"Named for the twelfth night after Christmas, the end of the Christmas season, Twelfth Night plays with love and power. The Countess Olivia, a woman with her own household, attracts Duke Orsino. Two other would-be suitors are her pretentious steward, Malvolio, and Sir Andrew Aguecheek. Onto this scene arrive the twins Viola and Sebastian; previously caught in a shipwreck, each thinks the other has drowned. Viola disguises herself as a male page and...

"This updated edition includes: newly revised commentary notes ; scene-by-scene plot summaries ; a key to the play's famous lines and phrases ; an introduction to reading Shakespeare's language ; an essay by a leading Shakespeare scholar providing a modern perspective on the play ; fresh images from the Folger Shakespeare Library's vast holdings of rare books ; an up-to-date annotated guide to further reading ; essay by Susan Snyder."--Back cover

The authoritative edition of The Winter's Tale from The Folger Shakespeare Library, the trusted and widely used Shakespeare series for students and general readers. The Winter's Tale, one of Shakespeare's very late plays, is filled with improbabilities. Before the conclusion, one character comments that what we are about to see,'Were it but told you, should be hooted at / Like an old tale.' It includes murderous passions, man-eating bears, princes...

Love and marriage are the concerns of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. Lucentio's marriage to Bianca is prompted by his idealized love of an apparently ideal woman. Petruchio's wooing of Katherine, however, is free of idealism. Petruchio takes money from Bianca's suitors to woo her, since Katherine must marry before her sister by her father's decree; he also arranges the dowry with her father. Petruchio is then ready to marry Katherine, even...

In Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare creates a violent world, in which two young people fall in love. It is not simply that their families disapprove; the Montagues and the Capulets are engaged in a blood feud. In this death-filled setting, the movement from love at first sight to the lovers’ final union in death seems almost inevitable. And yet, this play set in an extraordinary world has become the quintessential story of young love. In part because...

William Shakespeares classic play Othello , featuring valuable tools for educators and readers, from the esteemed Folger Shakespeare Library, home to the worlds largest collection of Shakespeares printed works. In Othello , William Shakespeare creates powerful drama from a marriage between the exotic Moor Othello and the Venetian lady Desdemona that begins with elopement and mutual devotion and ends with jealous rage and death. Shakespeare builds...

This updated edition features a discussion of recent critical & stage interpretations of 'Antony and Cleopatra', demonstrating how the theatrical design & imagination of this play make it one of Shakespeare's most remarkable works.

"Troilus and Cressida, long considered one of Shakespeare's most problematic plays, is both difficult and fascinating. Largely neglected during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, it has recently proved popular and rewarding on the stage as well as in the study. This edition questions certain received ideas about the play's text, especially the relationship between Quarto and Folio, and offers several new readings of old problems. Dawson's textual...

Presents William Shakespeare's play in which Timon, plagued with financial difficulties and with no one to help him, takes up residence in a cave where he finds buried treasure. Includes detailed notes on facing pages, historical background, and scholarly essay.

"Set in the earliest days of the Roman Republic, Coriolanus begins with the common people, or plebeians, in armed revolt against the patricians. The people win the right to be represented by tribunes. Meanwhile, there are foreign enemies near the gates of Rome. The play explores one reason that Rome prevailed over such vulnerabilities: its reverence for family bonds. Coriolanus so esteems his mother, Volumnia, that he risks his life to win her approval....