The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works

Synopsis

The Complete Arden Shakespeare contains the texts of all Shakespeare's plays and poems, edited by leading Shakespeare scholars for the renowned Arden Shakespeare series. This edition edition includes eight newly revised playtexts as published in the Arden Third Series since 1998.

A general introduction by the three General Editors of the ongoing Arden Shakespeare series gives the reader an overall view of how and why Shakespeare has become such an influential cultural icon, and how perceptions of his work have changed in the intervening four centuries. The introduction summarizes the known facts about the dramatist's life, his reading and use of sources, and the nature of theatrical performance during his lifetime.

Brief introductions to each play, written specially for this volume by the Arden General Editors, discuss the date and contemporary context of the play, its position within Shakespeare's oeuvre, and its subsequent performance history. An extensive glossary with nearly 400 entries explains vocabulary which may be unfamiliar to modern readers.