When you go to a bookstore to buy a good one volume edition of Shakespeare's works, you will certainly find a wide range of choices. Most people who buy one edition do so because it is that edition only that their literature professor demands. However, before you buy consider what you will need in that one edition: (a) Does it include every word Shakespeare ever wrote? Some do not. (b) Are the character's names spelled out each time? Abbreviations can be confusing. (c) Does each play contain a coherent and insightful introduction? Again some do not. (d) Are there helpful side or bottom notes? (e) Do the editors include a wide range of explanatory essays including his biography, his Globe Theater, his fellow actors, the contemporary dramatic background, his writing style, his usage of English, the intellectual background, and separate overviews of his tragedies, his comedies, and his histories? Part of the problem that students have in reading and understanding Shakespeare is that they do not see the connecting but subtle links from play to play. THE COMPLETE SIGNET SHAKESPEARE, edited by Sylvan Barnet, does all this and more. To take just one play as example, consider 'Julius Caesar.' The contributing editors, William and Barbara Rosen, write eloquently not only of the themes and ideas of the play, but they manage to connect how the audience of Shakespeare's day saw the action on stage. Without this background, then the reasons behind Anthony's ability to stir up his listener's at Caesar's funeral to a killing frenzy go unnoticed. There are more recent editions than this one (1972), but new does not mean better. This one improves with age.

I have only just become familiar with the works of Shakespeare. Before this I avoided his plays and sonnets because I thought "What can be so great about them", "I don't like what everyone else likes" or "I don't need goo goo ga ga romance"...

I was definitly misjudging Shakespeare, even worse I didn't even give him a try

Shakespeare's work is wonderful. He has intricate plots, in depth and human characters, and his approach and choice of words is the mark of his genious. The events are not as old as you might think. The reason why the plays are still being read is because they are written well about subjects that effect man whenever he exists on this earth. Definitly give Shakespeare a try!

This is an edition of the complete works of Shakespeare that I keep next to my bed. No heavier than a large fashion magazine and absolutely readable, it is my favorite. The glossary is useful, the commentary is brief, and the cover folds back for comfortable beach reading. This edition brings Shakespeare into focus as an intimate whose work and life and suffering are not in any way distant from ours. Given the genius of the work, this particular edition encourages an easier relationship because the book itself is so easy to use.(When no one's around, pull it out and read a speech or two aloud) An excellent any-occasion gift that will be used and appreciated, especially by students, because it is so very convenient!

An older recording of is an elegant reading with the magic of Richard Burton's Welsh tones in the title role. As with much of the Shakespeare Recording Society productions, all of which will soon be available again on Harper Audio, much of the lines are delivered in the old style that I feel is really essential to doing justice to the poetry inherent therein. On the other hand, the recent recording in the Arkangel Complete Shakespeare series is certainly much more dramatic and seems to move a little faster, although the timings are pretty much the same. (And it is on two tapes, contrasted with the 3 used by Harper.)

Paul Jesson might sound a little old for the role--it is hard to forget Burton--but he throws himself into things, building a character that to modern tastes is not all as admirable as Shakespeare's audience might have found him. But being available as it has in an election year, it is good to have a play about a candidate who will not degrade himself or tells lies before the voters!

Margorie Yates makes an impressive Volumnia. The Menenius of Ewan Hooper strikes just that right tone as a man who can sway a mob with a well-wrought anecdote based on an analogy that really does not match the social crisis at hand but sounds as if it does. Again, more political pre-echoes of today's urban problems.

The character of Aufidius leaves a lot to the director or actor to build upon. Just how happy is he at first to receive his greatest foe as an ally; just how much does he agree at first with Coriolanus' decision to spare Rome; just how "struck with sorrow" is he at the very end? I suppose in a stage performance, a lot of body motion can resolve the ambiguity. On this recording, it is very hard to tell what this pivotal character really feels.

But all in all, this is a superior recording--and while it will not replace the older set, it certainly deserves a worthy place beside it.

Since I love to see the themes of classic literature reworked for today's students, I enjoyed all four of the companion plays in this series. The Cowboy and the Wildcat is a really delightful visit to the Shrew-Taming theme, set south of the border. The language is current and and accessible, with plenty of support activities for second language learners. The play text is adaptable for everything from a simple classroom reading and discussion to a complete staging. And students never seem to tire of the possible spin-off theme discussions of love and marriage. Check out these great classroom resources!

As a student of Shakespeare I bought this book to help me understand the connection between Oldcastle and Falstaff. Rittenhouse quotes Holinshed's CHRONICLES and Foxe's ACTS AND MONUMENTS for the historical Lollard who died a martyr's death under Henry V. He gives us the entire play (1 SIR JOHN OLDCASTLE)written in 1599 by four authors who borrowed heavily from Shakespeare. 2 SIR JOHN OLDCASTLE, wherein the bishops insist on his death, was suppressed as too hot a topic in the aftermath of the execution of Essex.

Oldcastle in the play is shown as loyal to Henry V and esteemed by many people of both high and low degree. A follower of Wycliff, he stood for removing the abuses of the Church. Those who benefited from the abuses, the bishops, wanted Henry V to see Oldcastle as disloyal to the crown.

For my purposes in comparing Oldcastle to Falstaff, the book was useful but I need to read about Wycliff and John Florio to complete the picture.

It was originally a doctoral dissertation.

This is a wonderful collection of essays on Richard II. Especially noteworthy is Morgan Griffin's brilliant introduction to the critical history of the play, which synthesizes and critiques decades of scholarly work.

This is a book about love, violence, the outsider against society: the forbidden love of Tristan and Isolde, the problem violence in Boiardo's Orlando in Love, Ariosto's analysis of women and society, Spenser in Ireland, and Shakespeare's use of the old romance trope of the custom of the castle.

This dictionary is the best reference I've been able to find to help me as I study or read Shakespeare. I would recommend it to anyone planning to spend alot of time either for pleasure or education with his works.

A. L. Rowse, an extremely eminent student of Elizabethan history and of Shakespeare, a gentleman and a scholar, has devoted this book to a truly exciting thesis: he claims that he figured out all the "mysteries" of Shakespeare's sonnets, published the results to the world, and was rewarded with horrified silence from the "Shakespeare Establishment."

In brief, Rowse has figured out that the young man of the sonnets was Henry Wriothesley, the young Earl of Southampton; that the rival poet was Christopher Marlowe, and that the Dark Lady was Emilia Lanier (born Bassano).

What about the world-famous Mr. W.H.?? On this point, Rowse appears to be just fatally right. Have a look for yourself:

TO.THE.ONLIE.BEGETTER.OF.
THESE.INSUING.SONNETS.
Mr.W.H. ALL.HAPPINESSE.
AND.THAT.ETERNITIE.
P R O M I S E D

BY.
OVR.EVERLIVING.POET.

WISHETH.

THE.WELL-WISHING.
ADVENTVURER.IN.
SETTING.
FORTH.

T.T.

The sonnets were printed by Thomas Thorp, and written by William Shakespeare. Now who wrote this dedication? Take a good look! The dedication is SIGNED "T.T." !! Who could "our ever-living poet" possibly be, other than William Shakespeare? And -- if you pause to consider the quality of the English (unclear thoughts, mundane vocabulary, eccentric punctuation) -- it is trebly evident that Thomas Thorp wrote the page just cited, and that "Mr. W.H." is Thorp's man, not Shakespeare's.

Everything else comes in an easy tumble once you get this simple fact right: Mr. W.H. is Thorp's man. He's the man who found the manuscript of the sonnets and handed them to the overjoyed publisher. And he is surely Sir William Harvey, Southampton's step-father, who had just inherited the contents of the Southampton house from his deceased, much older, wife, the young Earl's mother.

Aha! So: Southampton was Shakespeare's brilliant, wealthy, powerful and handsome patron. The young Southampton refused to marry, even though he needed to produce an heir; he preferred having a good time. Now we understand the opening theme of the sonnets, and we can see the obvious patron-client relationship between the good-looking young lord and the brilliant poet.

There are many more fascinating revelations in this book, as is
only natural -- Rowse cracked a puzzle which had frustrated everyone for four hundred years. And his reward?

Buried in oblivion! Ostracism! Ignored, despised, shut out! And this is where the book really shines. Roswe has survived to tell the tale, and, in a magnificently curmudgeonly way, to "rub it in." No one has ever managed to find the slightest fault with his scholarship or his judgments, but, oh! do academics think in herds!

Rowse really lets them have it! Teachers and scholars have a job
to do: it's called finding and disseminating the truth. When such a person actually REFUSES to deal with the truth, and prefers to continue handing falsehoods to his students, he becomes totally bankrupt, having betrayed every ideal of his chosen profession. What kind of language does such a person deserve?

Rowse's discoveries are of course subject to modification and
improvement, like ALL history. But this short book is worth more
(literally) then everything else which has ever been written on
the "mysteries of Shakespeare's sonnets."

Highest possible recommendation!!!