Shakespeare on Page and Stage

Sir Stanley Wells, CBE, FRSL, described by Roy Hattersley as 'Our greatest authority on Shakespeare's life and work', is Honorary President, Life Trustee, and former Chairman of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. He was Professor of Shakespeare Studies and Director of the Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham, from 1988-1997, and is now Emeritus Professor. He is an Honorary Emeritus Governor of the Royal Shakespeare Company. He has been General Editor of the Oxford Shakespeare since 1978 and is General Editor of the Penguin Shakespeare. One of the most distinguished Shakespearian scholars currently working, his publications include Shakespeare For All Time (2002), Shakespeare & Co (2006), Shakespeare, Sex, and Love (2010), Great Shakespeare Actors (2015), William Shakespeare: A Very Short Introduction (2015), and Shakespeare's Tragedies: A Very Short Introduction (2017).

His breadth and judiciousness are generously on view in an essay "On Being a General Editor," with advice that I have long taken to heart as to whether notes should appear at the foot of the page, how to keep the text as free as possible from algebraic signs, how to persuade individual editors in a series to absorb and act upon the advice they are given, and much more. These are only a few instances of enlightenment afforded by this immensely valuable collection of essays.

• Peter Holland: IntroductionI. Shakespearian Influences1: Shakespeare: Man of the European Renaissance2: Tales from ShakespeareII. Essays on Particular Works3: The Failure of The Two Gentlemen of Verona4: The Taming of the Shrew and King Lear: A Structural Comparison5: The Integration of Violent Action in Titus Andronicus6: The Challenges of Romeo and Juliet7: Juliet's Nurse: The Uses of Inconsequentiality8: The Lamentable Tale of Richard II9: A Midsummer Night's Dream Revisited10: Translations in A Midsummer Night's Dream11: The Once and Future King Lear12: Points of Stagecraft in The Tempest13: 'My Name is Will': Shakespeare's Sonnets and Autobiography14: Shakespeare Without Sources15: Shakespeare and RomanceIII. Shakespeare in the Theatre16: Boys Should be Girls: Shakespeare s Female Roles and the Boy Players17: Staging Shakespeare's Ghosts18: Staging Shakespeare's Apparitions and Dream Visions19: Shakespeare in Planché's Extravaganzas20: Shakespeare in Max Beerbohm's Theatre Criticism21: Shakespeare in Leigh Hunt's Theatre Criticism22: Shakespeare in Hazlitt's Theatre Criticism23: Peter Hall's Coriolanus, 1959IV. Shakespeare's Text24: On Being a General Editor25: Editorial Treatment of Foul-Paper Texts: Much Ado About Nothing as Test Case26: Money in Shakespeare's Comedies27: To Read a Play: The Problem of Editorial Intervention28: The First Folio: Where Should We be Without it?29: The Limitations of the First FolioMargreta de Grazia: AfterwordNotesSelect List of PublicationsAcknowledgementsIndex