Why does Shakespeare write in the way he does? And how can actors and directors get the most out of his incomparable plays?In Speaking the Speech, Giles Block – 'Master of the Words' at Shakespeare's Globe – sets out to answer these two simple questions. The result is the most authoritative, most comprehensive book yet written on speaking Shakespeare's words.Throughout the book, the author subjects Shakespeare's language to rigorous examination, illuminating his ex...

Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It is among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romeo_and_Juliet

A Midsummer Night's Dream is a romantic comedy by William Shakespeare, suggested by "The Knight's Tale" from Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, written around 1594 to 1596. It portrays the adventures of four young Athenian lovers and a group of amateur actors, their interactions with the Duke and Duchess of Athens, Theseus and Hippolyta, and with the fairies who inhabit a moonlit forest. The play is one of Shakespeare's most popular works for the stage and is widely performed across ...

Macbeth is among the best-known of William Shakespeare's plays, and is his shortest tragedy, believed to have been written between 1603 and 1606. It is frequently performed at both amateur and professional levels, and has been adapted for opera, film, books, stage and screen. Often regarded as archetypal, the play tells of the dangers of the lust for power and the betrayal of friends. For the plot Shakespeare drew loosely on the historical account of King Macbeth of Scotland by Raphael Hol...

Hamlet is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601. The play, set in Denmark, recounts how Prince Hamlet exacts revenge on his uncle Claudius, who has murdered Hamlet's father, the King, and then taken the throne and married Hamlet's mother. The play vividly charts the course of real and feigned madness from overwhelming grief to seething rage and explores themes of treachery, revenge, incest, and moral corruption.Despite much literary detective...

The Signet Classics edition of William Shakespeare's incomparable tragic play."To be, or not to be: that is the question"There is arguably no work of fiction quoted as often as William Shakespeare's Hamlet. This haunting tragedy of a troubled Danish prince devoted to avenging his father's death has captivated audiences for centuries.This title in the Signet Classics Shakespeare series includes:• An overview of Shakespeare's...

The Taming of the Shrew is a comedy by William Shakespeare. It was one of his earlier plays, believed to have been written between 1590 and 1594. The play begins with a framing device in which a drunkard is deceived into thinking he is a nobleman who then watches the "play" itself, which depicts a nobleman, Petruchio, who marries an outspoken, intelligent, and bad-tempered shrew named Katherine. Petruchio manipulates and "tames" her until she is obedient to his will. The main subplot featu...

The Tempest is a comedy that was written by William Shakespeare. It is generally dated to 1610-11 and accepted as the last play written solely by him, although some scholars have argued for an earlier dating. While listed as a comedy in its initial publication in the First Folio of 1623, many modern editors have relabelled the play a romance. It did not attract a significant amount of attention before the closing of the theatres in 1642, and after the Restoration it attained great populari...

The Ars amatoria (Latin: 'Art of Love') is a poem in three books by the Roman poet Ovid. It claims to provide teaching in three areas of general preoccupation: how and where to find girls (and husbands) in Rome, how to seduce them, and how to prevent others from stealing them.Remedia Amoris (Love's Remedy or The Cure for Love) is a 814 line poem in Latin by the Roman poet Ovid. In this poem, Ovid offers advices and strategies to avoid being hurt by love feelings , or to fall out of love, w...

Though this great tragedy of unsurpassed intensity and emotion is played out against Renaissance splendor, its story of the doomed marriage of a Venetian senator’s daughter, Desdemona, to a Moorish general, Othello, is especially relevant to modern audiences. The differences in race and background create an initial tension that allows the horrifyingly envious villain Iago methodically to promote the “green-eyed monster” jealousy, until, in one of the most deeply moving scenes in theatrical...

The Signet Classics edition of William Shakespeare's timeless story of star-crossed lovers.One of the Bard's most popular plays, this is both the quintessential story of young love and a cautionary tale of the tragedy that can occur when the forces of passion and familial pride are at odds.This title in the Signet Classics Shakespeare series includes:• An overview of Shakespeare's life, world, and theater• A special introduction to the play b...

A foolproof, enormously fun method of teaching your children the classic works of William Shakespeare, by a Tony Award–winning playwright—now featuring two new chapters“You and your children will be transformed by the magic and mystery of Shakespeare and his stories in an instant.”—Sir Derek Jacobi, CBEWinner of the Falstaff Award for Best Shakespeare BookTo know some Shakespeare provides a head start in life. His p...