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  3. The New Cambridge Shakespeare

The New Cambridge Shakespeare appeals to readers worldwide for its up-to-date scholarship and emphasis on performance. The series, edited by an expert international team, includes all Shakespeare's plays, sonnets and poems, presented in attractively designed volumes. • Modern-spelling texts have been freshly established by each editor according to modern scholarly principles, distinguishing carefully between alternative quarto and Folio readings • Lively introductions provide information on the date of composition, the theatrical and political context, sources, themes, language, critical reception and performance history • Informative illustrations give life to each play and cast light on a wide spectrum of historical, social and theatrical issues. Recreations of Shakespeare's stage and photographs from recent productions are included• Valuable commentary at the foot of each page explains word-meaning and allusions. • Precise details of staging and performance help students visualise the plays in action.• Stylish and spacious page layout preserves an uncluttered text and allows room for the user's annotations.For further details of the individual books available in New Cambridge Shakespeare, and to view pages from each book, please go to www.cambridge.org/ncs.

  • General Editors: Brian Gibbons, University of Münster
  • Associate Editors: A. R. Braunmuller, University of California, Los Angeles

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44 results in The New Cambridge Shakespeare

Page 1 of 3

Romeo and Juliet
  • 3rd edition
  • William Shakespeare
  • Introduction by Hester Lees-Jeffries
  • Edited by G. Blakemore Evans
  • Published online:
    18 August 2023
    Print publication:
    29 June 2023
  • For this updated critical edition of Romeo and Juliet, Hester Lees-Jeffries has written a completely new introduction. It draws on recent research in theatre to set Romeo and Juliet in its mid-1590s context, making connections with other plays by Shakespeare and other literature of the period, as well as with the social and cultural contexts of the day, with discussions of London and Italy, dancing and duelling, marriage, gender and sexuality. It includes detailed discussion of the play in performance from the Restoration to the present day, with a particular focus on film (including global cinema), music and dance, and also explores other adaptations and afterlives, including young-adult fiction. The edition retains the commentary and Textual Analysis of the previous editor, G. Blakemore Evans; the Textual Analysis is prefaced with a short note contextualising its conclusions in the light of more recent research.

As You Like It
  • 3rd edition
  • William Shakespeare
  • Edited by Michael Hattaway
  • Published online:
    14 July 2021
    Print publication:
    01 April 2021
  • Michael Hattaway's Introduction to this bestselling edition of As You Like It accounts for what makes this popular play both innocent and dangerous. This third edition includes a new section on recent critical interpretations, including sections on ecocriticism, peace studies, and myths of gender, on recent as well as past stage productions and films of the play, as well as fresh illustrations. An appendix on an early court performance in 1599, commentary on the play's language, the book trade, and the discursive cultures of its time, as well as an updated reading list are also included.

The Tragedy of King Lear
  • 3rd edition
  • William Shakespeare
  • Introduction by Lois Potter
  • Edited by Jay Halio
  • Published online:
    21 January 2021
    Print publication:
    14 May 2020
  • For this updated critical edition of King Lear, Lois Potter has written a completely new introduction, taking account of recent productions and reinterpretations of the play, with particular emphasis on its afterlife in global performance and adaptation. The edition retains the Textual Analysis of the previous editor, Jay L. Halio, shortened and with a new preface by Brian Gibbons.  Professor Halio, accepting that we have two versions of equal authority, the one derived from Shakespeare's rough drafts, the other from a manuscript used in the playhouses during the seventeenth century, chooses the Folio as the text for this edition.  He explains the differences between the two versions and alerts the reader to the rival claims of the quarto by means of a sampling of parallel passages in the Introduction and by an appendix which contains annotated passages unique to the quarto.

The Comedy of Errors
  • 2nd edition
  • William Shakespeare
  • Edited by T. S. Dorsch
  • Revised by Ros King
  • Published online:
    16 August 2019
    Print publication:
    26 February 2004
  • The New Cambridge Shakespeare appeals to students worldwide for its up-to-date scholarship and emphasis on performance. The series features line-by-line commentaries and textual notes on the plays and poems. Introductions are regularly refreshed with accounts of new critical, stage and screen interpretations. For this second edition of The Comedy of Errors, Ros King has revised T. S. Dorsch's renowned text and commentary and written a completely new introduction to the work. She argues that the play cannot be regarded merely as a farcical romp based on a classical model but that it belongs to the critically misunderstood genre of tragi-comedy. Emphasising the seriousness that underlies the text, she pays special attention to the play's religious imagery and at the same time engages fully with its lightness of touch and its continuing popularity in the theatre. The volume also features accounts of recent and historical performances, and an updated reading list.

King Richard ll
  • 3rd edition
  • William Shakespeare
  • Edited by Andrew Gurr
  • Introduction by Claire McEachern
  • Published online:
    16 August 2019
    Print publication:
    06 December 2018
  • In this updated edition of King Richard II, Claire McEachern provides a fresh introductory section in which she discusses the most important productions and scholarly criticism of recent years. Paying particular attention to the focus on religion in contemporary interpretations of the play, McEachern also analyses the increasing number of performances on stage and screen. Andrew Gurr's acclaimed introduction guides the reader through the play's action and politics, providing a thorough and engaging grounding in its structure, language and staging. An updated reading list completes the edition.

A Midsummer Night's Dream
  • 2nd edition
  • William Shakespeare
  • Edited by R. A. Foakes
  • Published online:
    02 August 2019
    Print publication:
    28 April 2003
  • The New Cambridge Shakespeare appeals to students worldwide for its up-to-date scholarship and emphasis on performance. The series features line-by-line commentaries and textual notes on the plays and poems. Introductions are regularly refreshed with accounts of new critical, stage and screen interpretations. This second edition of A Midsummer Night's Dream retains R. A. Foakes' text and has been extensively updated by him. In the Introduction to what is widely acknowledged as Shakespeare's most popular comedy, Foakes describes the two main traditions in the play's stage history, one emphasising charm and innocence, the other stressing darker suggestions of violence and sexuality. He shows that both are necessary to a full understanding of the play. For this edition the editor has added a new account of important theatrical productions and scholarly criticism on the play that have appeared in recent years. The reading list has also been revised and updated.

Hamlet
  • Prince of Denmark
  • 3rd edition
  • William Shakespeare
  • Edited with Introduction and Notes by Heather Hirschfeld
  • Edited by Philip Edwards
  • Published online:
    16 August 2019
    Print publication:
    07 February 2019
  • The third edition of Hamlet offers a completely new introduction to this rich, mysterious play, examining Shakespeare's transformation of an ancient Nordic legend into a drama whose philosophical, psychological, political, and spiritual complexities have captivated audiences world-wide for over 400 years. Focusing on the ways in which Shakespeare re-imagined the revenge plot and its capacity to investigate the human experiences of love, grief, obligation, and memory, Heather Hirschfeld explores the play's cultural and theatrical contexts, its intricate textual issues, its vibrant critical traditions and controversies, and its history of performance and adaptation by celebrated directors, actors, and authors. Supplemented by an updated reading list, extensive illustrations and helpful appendices, this edition also features revised commentary notes explicitly designed for the student reader, offering the very best in contemporary criticism of this great tragedy.

Much Ado about Nothing
  • 3rd edition
  • William Shakespeare
  • Introduction by Travis D. Williams
  • Edited by F. H. Mares
  • Published online:
    16 August 2019
    Print publication:
    20 September 2018
  • Much Ado about Nothing has always been popular on the stage. This edition pays especial attention to the history and range of theatrical interpretation, in which famous actors, from the time of Garrick to the present, have appeared as the sparring lovers Benedick and Beatrice. A full commentary includes annotation of the many sexual jokes in the play that have been obscured by the complexity of Elizabethan language. In this new edition, Travis D. Williams reviews recent stage, television, film and critical interpretations of the play, considering treatment of the play's special interest in language, bodies and gender.

The Merchant of Venice
  • 3rd edition
  • William Shakespeare
  • Edited by M.M. Mahood
  • Introduction by Tom Lockwood
  • Published online:
    16 August 2019
    Print publication:
    19 April 2018
  • For this updated edition of one of Shakespeare's most problematic plays, Tom Lockwood has added a new introductory section on the latest scholarly trends, performance and adaptation practices which have occurred over the last two decades. Investigating the latest critical frames through which the play has been interpreted, the updated introduction also focuses on recent international performances on stage and screen (including Al Pacino's performances on film and in Daniel Sullivan's production in New York, the Habima National Theatre's production for the Globe to Globe Festival, Jonathan Munby's touring production for the Globe performed in London, New York and Venice, and Rupert Goold's production for the Royal Shakespeare Company). Finally, new forms of adaptation are considered: a performance transposed to the different generic mode of a New York auction room, and the remaking of the play in Howard Jacobson's 2016 novel, Shylock Is my Name.

Othello
  • 3rd edition
  • William Shakespeare
  • Edited by Norman Sanders
  • Introduction by Christina Luckyj
  • Published online:
    16 August 2019
    Print publication:
    05 April 2018
  • This third edition of Othello offers a completely new introduction by Christina Luckyj, providing readers with a nuanced understanding of early modern theatre and culture, and demonstrating how careful attention to Shakespeare's language, staging and dramaturgy can open up fresh interpretations of the play. Tracing critical and performance trends up to the present day, Luckyj shows how the drama taps into contemporary cultural paradoxes surrounding blackness, marriage, and politics to create a powerful double perspective, illuminating the creative and destructive power of stories and of human love itself. Supplemented by an updated reading list and extensive illustrations, this edition also features revised commentary notes, offering the very best in contemporary criticism of this great tragedy.

The Taming of the Shrew
  • 3rd edition
  • William Shakespeare
  • Edited by Ann Thompson
  • Published online:
    16 August 2019
    Print publication:
    13 October 2017
  • The New Cambridge Shakespeare appeals to students worldwide for its up-to-date scholarship and emphasis on performance. The series features line-by-line commentaries and textual notes on the plays and poems. Introductions are regularly refreshed with accounts of new critical, stage and screen interpretations. This is the third New Cambridge edition of The Taming of the Shrew, one of Shakespeare's most popular yet controversial plays. Ann Thompson considers its reception in the light of the hostility and embarrassment that the play often arouses, taking account of both scholarly defences and modern feminist criticism. For this version the editor pays lively attention to the problematic nature of debates about the play and its reception in the twenty-first century. She discusses recent editions and textual, performance and critical studies.

Twelfth Night
  • Or What You Will
  • 3rd edition
  • William Shakespeare
  • Edited by Elizabeth Story Donno
  • Introduction by Penny Gay
  • Published online:
    16 August 2019
    Print publication:
    17 August 2017
  • The New Cambridge Shakespeare appeals to students worldwide for its up-to-date scholarship and emphasis on performance. The series features line-by-line commentaries and textual notes on the plays and poems. Introductions are regularly refreshed with accounts of new critical, stage and screen interpretations. This third edition of Twelfth Night retains the text edited and annotated by Elizabeth Story Donno for the first edition of 1985, and features an updated introduction by Penny Gay, which focuses on recent scholarship and performance history. Building on her Introduction to the second edition, Gay stresses the play's theatricality, its elaborate linguistic games and its complex use of Ovidian myths. She analyses the delicate balance Shakespeare strikes in Twelfth Night between romance and realism, and explores representations of gender, sexuality and identity in the text. A selection of new photographs completes the edition.

Julius Caesar
  • 3rd edition
  • William Shakespeare
  • Edited by Marvin Spevack
  • Introduction by Jeremy Lopez
  • Published online:
    16 August 2019
    Print publication:
    31 July 2017
  • This revised edition preserves the play text as it was edited by Marvin Spevack for the 1988 first edition. Jeremy Lopez's new introduction provides a detailed discussion of Julius Caesar's strange and innovative form by focusing on the interpretive challenges the play has presented to audiences, scholars and theatre companies from Shakespeare's time to our own. The textual commentary has been revised and updated with an eye, and an ear, to the contemporary student reader, and the list of further reading has been updated to reflect the latest developments in Shakespearean criticism. Like the first edition, this edition concludes with an appendix containing relevant excerpts from Shakespeare's main source, Plutarch's histories of the lives of Caesar and Brutus as translated by Sir Thomas North in 1579.

Troilus and Cressida
  • 2nd edition
  • William Shakespeare
  • Edited by Anthony B. Dawson
  • Introduction by Gretchen Minton
  • Published online:
    02 August 2019
    Print publication:
    25 July 2017
  • The New Cambridge Shakespeare appeals to students worldwide for its up-to-date scholarship and emphasis on performance. The series features line-by-line commentaries and textual notes on the plays and poems. Introductions are regularly refreshed with accounts of new critical, stage and screen interpretations. This second edition of Troilus and Cressida, a play that has long been considered difficult but is now popular both on the stage and in criticism, features an expanded and updated introduction and reading list. The first edition has been praised for its careful rethinking of the text, excellent annotation, lively attention to performance and extensive coverage of the play's major concerns. This updated edition retains these characteristics. In addition, Gretchen Minton and Anthony B. Dawson have provided a new account of the critical and theatrical treatment of Troilus and Cressida over the last fifteen years, showing how modern audiences have become attuned to the play's sardonic undercutting of both the medieval romance of the title characters and the Homeric tale of the Trojan War. Recent performance history is placed against a broader background of social change, including shifting attitudes towards war, political decision-making, gender politics, and fear of disease and contagion.

The Tempest
  • 2nd edition
  • William Shakespeare
  • Edited by David Lindley
  • Published online:
    05 May 2013
    Print publication:
    16 May 2013
  • The New Cambridge Shakespeare appeals to students worldwide for its up-to-date scholarship and emphasis on performance. The series features line-by-line commentaries and textual notes on the plays and poems. Introductions are regularly refreshed with accounts of new critical, stage and screen interpretations. For this second edition of The Tempest, David Lindley has thoroughly revised the Introduction to take account of the latest developments in criticism and performance. He has also added a completely new section on casting in recent productions of the play. The complex questions this new section raises about colonisation, racial and gender stereotypes and the nature of theatrical experience are explored throughout the introduction. Careful attention is paid to dramatic form, stagecraft, and the use of music and spectacle in The Tempest, a play that is widely regarded as one of Shakespeare's most elusive and suggestive. A revised and updated reading list completes the edition.

The Two Noble Kinsmen
  • William Shakespeare
  • Edited by Robert Kean Turner, Patricia Tatspaugh
  • Published online:
    05 June 2012
    Print publication:
    05 April 2012
  • The New Cambridge Shakespeare appeals to students worldwide for its up-to-date scholarship and emphasis on performance. The series features line-by-line commentaries, textual notes on the plays and poems and an extensive Introduction. Since the late twentieth century, when scholarly attention began to focus on sexuality, collaboration and Shakespeare's late plays, The Two Noble Kinsmen has become an essential script. Turner and Tatspaugh's edition presents a strong case for taking the play more seriously now than ever before. A lively introduction discusses Shakespeare's craftsmanship in adapting a medieval tale for the Jacobean stage, the extent of co-authorship with John Fletcher, the rhetorical complexity of Shakespeare's late style, the themes of sexuality and friendship, and contemporary critical responses to the play. The edition demonstrates the theatrical vitality of The Two Noble Kinsmen and confirms it as a play for today.

The Two Gentlemen of Verona
  • 2nd edition
  • William Shakespeare
  • Edited by Kurt Schlueter
  • With contributions by Lucy Munro
  • Published online:
    16 August 2019
    Print publication:
    05 April 2012
  • The New Cambridge Shakespeare appeals to students worldwide for its up-to-date scholarship and emphasis on performance. The series features line-by-line commentaries and textual notes on the plays and poems. Introductions are regularly refreshed with accounts of new critical, stage and screen interpretations. In this second edition of The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Kurt Schlueter approaches Shakespeare's early comedy as a parody of two types of Renaissance educational fiction: the love-quest story and the test-of-friendship story, which in combination show high-flown human ideals as incompatible with each other and with human nature. Since the first known production at David Garrick's Drury Lane Theatre, the play has tempted major directors and actors, though changing conceptions of the play often fail to recognise its subversive impetus. This updated edition includes a new introductory section by Lucy Munro on recent stage and critical interpretations, bringing the thoroughly researched, illustrated performance history up to date.

The Merry Wives of Windsor
  • 2nd edition
  • William Shakespeare
  • Edited by David Crane
  • Published online:
    16 August 2019
    Print publication:
    25 February 2010
  • The New Cambridge Shakespeare appeals to students worldwide for its up-to-date scholarship and emphasis on performance. The series features line-by-line commentaries and textual notes on the plays and poems. Introductions are regularly refreshed with accounts of new critical, stage and screen interpretations. In this second edition of Shakespeare's Merry Wives of Windsor David Crane emphasises the liveliness of the play in stage terms. He also claims that this citizen comedy was an expression of Shakespeare's fundamental understanding of human life, conveyed centrally in the character of Falstaff. In the process he examines Shakespeare's free and vigorous use of different linguistic worlds. An account of the play's textual history concludes that at the time of its earliest performances Shakespeare's text was being adapted to specific theatrical needs, and as much in the possession of its players as of its author.

Coriolanus
  • 2nd edition
  • Edited by Lee Bliss
  • With contributions by Bridget Escolme
  • Published online:
    16 August 2019
    Print publication:
    21 January 2010
  • The New Cambridge Shakespeare appeals to students worldwide for its up-to-date scholarship and emphasis on performance. The series features line-by-line commentaries and textual notes on the plays and poems. Introductions are regularly refreshed with accounts of new critical, stage and screen interpretations. This second edition of Coriolanus, edited by Lee Bliss, provides a thorough reconsideration of what was probably Shakespeare's last tragedy. In the introduction, Bliss situates the play within its contemporary social and political contexts and pays particular attention to Shakespeare's manipulation of his primary source in Plutarch's Lives. The edition is alert to the play's theatrical potential, while the stage history also attends to the politics of performance from the 1680s onwards, including European productions following the Second World War. A new introductory section by Bridget Escolme accounts for recent theatrical productions as well as scholarly criticism of the last decade, with particular emphasis on gender and politics.

As You Like It
  • 2nd edition
  • William Shakespeare
  • Edited by Michael Hattaway
  • Published online:
    16 August 2019
    Print publication:
    10 September 2009
  • The New Cambridge Shakespeare appeals to students worldwide for its up-to-date scholarship and emphasis on performance. The series features line-by-line commentaries and textual notes on the plays and poems. Introductions are regularly refreshed with accounts of new critical, stage and screen interpretations. In his Introduction to this second edition of As You Like It, its editor, Michael Hattaway accounts for what makes this popular play both innocent and dangerous. In performance it can appear bright or sombre: a feast of language and a delight for comic actors, or a risk-taking exploration of gender roles. This edition includes a new section on recent critical interpretations and dramatic productions of the play as well as an appendix on an early court performance of As You Like It in 1599. Commentary on the play's language, an updated reading list and an account of the play in performance are also included.

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