A Penguin Classics edition containing The Taming of the Shrew, A Midsummer Night's Dream, As You Like It, and Twelfth Night
Shakespearean comedy has as much to do with the structure and movement of the drama as with the wit of its dialogue or the humour of its characters. In these four comedies there is a near-tragic crisis at which disaster or happiness may ensue, but the overriding force of goodwill and the power of understanding, love and generosity brings us through to a joyful conclusion. In comedy, 'sweet are the uses of adversity', so that the...

Modernizing Shakespeare's Spelling With Three Studies of the Text of 'Henry V'

The sonnets are among the most accomplished and fascinating poems in the English language. They are central to an understanding of Shakespeare's work as a poet and poetic dramatist, and while their autobiographical relevance is uncertain, no account of Shakespeare's life can afford to ignore them. So many myths and superstitions have arisen around these poems, relating for example to their possible addressees, to their coherence as a sequence, to their dates of composition, to their relation to other poetry of the period and to Shakespeare's plays, that even the most naive reader will find it...

From the dean of Shakespeare studies comes a lively, entertaining work of biography that firmly locates Shakespeare within the hectic, exilarating world in which he lived and worked.Theatre in Shakespeare's day was a growth industry. Everyone knew everyone else, and they all sought to learn, borrow, or steal from one another. Stanley Wells explores the theatre world from behind the scenes, examining how the great actors of the time influenced Shakespeare's work. He writes about the lives and works of the other major writers of the day and discusses Shakespeare's relationships-sometimes...

This book examines the areas of plays that are dependent upon the art of the theatre and the fluidity of interpretation to which this gives rise.

One of the best-known and most versatile of Shakespearian scholars considers the extent to which sexual meaning in Shakespeare's writing relies on interpretation by actors, directors and critics. Tracing interpretations of Shakespearian "bawdy" and "innuendo" from the eighteenth-century to the present, Stanley Wells pays special attention to interpretations of A Midsummer Night's Dream, the Sonnets and homosexual relationships in the plays.

Shakespeare Survey is a yearbook of Shakespeare studies and production.

One of the best-known and most versatile of Shakespearian scholars considers the extent to which sexual meaning in Shakespeare's writing relies on interpretation by actors, directors and critics. Tracing interpretations of Shakespearian "bawdy" and "innuendo" from the eighteenth-century to the present, Stanley Wells pays special attention to interpretations of A Midsummer Night's Dream, the Sonnets and homosexual relationships in the plays.

Aspects of Hamlet brings together authoritative articles by distinguished Shakespeare scholars.

This volume brings together nine essays on King Lear by distinguished scholars, all of which were first published in Shakespeare Survey