Sarah Neville – författare

'How many fond fools serve mad jealousy!'The Comedy of Errors is one of Shakespeare's most farcical plays, with not one but two sets of twins sliding past each other into mistakes, violence, and madness. An early romantic comedy, it's often considered an immature play but also a piece of dramatic experimentation. This New Oxford Shakespeare edition examines links between Shakespeare's play and its literary sources and analogues, but also situates it within performance traditions. Illuminating points of comparison between The Comedy of Errors and Shakespeare's other comedies, as well as it's consonances with Shakespeare's later plays of estrangement and loss, this edition provides readers with a nuanced exploration of Shakespeare's shortest play.The New Oxford Shakespeare offers authoritative editions of Shakespeare's works with introductory materials designed to encourage new interpretations of the plays and poems. Using the text from the landmark The New Oxford Shakespeare Complete Works: Modern Critical Edition, these volumes offer readers the latest thinking on the authentic texts (collated from all surviving original versions of Shakespeare's work) alongside innovative introductions from leading scholars. The texts are accompanied by a comprehensive set of critical apparatus to give readers the best resources to help understand and enjoy Shakespeare's work.ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

'Cry "havoc!" and let slip the dogs of war'Set against the backdrop of a nation breaking out into civil war, Julius Caesar raises questions of governance, power, tyranny, and enslavement. This New Oxford Shakespeare edition situates these questions within the historical framework of the play's early history in theatre and print, as well as within its long performance history up to and including in the 21st century. The introduction examines the ways in which Roman history is deployed to justify and question political structures, both by Shakespeare and other writers, as well as the transition from historical sources to stage. The New Oxford Shakespeare offers authoritative editions of Shakespeare's works with introductory materials designed to encourage new interpretations of the plays and poems. Using the text from the landmark The New Oxford Shakespeare Complete Works: Modern Critical Edition, these volumes offer readers the latest thinking on the authentic texts (collated from all surviving original versions of Shakespeare's work) alongside innovative introductions from leading scholars. The texts are accompanied by a comprehensive set of critical apparatus to give readers the best resources to help understand and enjoy Shakespeare's work.ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

'No, no, I am but shadow of myself...'Henry VI, Part I paints a vivid picture of political ambition, civil unrest, and war. One of Shakespeare's most collaborative plays, it was a theatrical hit when it was first performed in 1592. Scenes alternate between conflict at home and on foreign soil: between the growing civil dissention that would lead to the Wars of the Roses and the battles of the Hundred Years' War over England's claim to the French throne. It is an action-packed play, but one that offers a profound meditation on individual sacrifice and heroism, corruption, and the costs of conflict. Amy Lidster's introduction examines the play's historical, political, and theatrical contexts, offering a compelling analysis of the affective potential of theatre, language, and narrative to effect political change and shape our understanding of the history that it dramatizes. The introduction explores the play's use of sources, its position within a trilogy of plays about the reign of Henry VI, and its prominent but conflicted representation of France's defender, Joan la Pucelle (Joan of Arc). The introduction offers a fresh analysis of the vibrant theatrical repertory into which the play emerged — one that was marked by politically invested drama that staged diverse, transnational histories.The New Oxford Shakespeare offers authoritative editions of Shakespeare's works with introductory materials designed to encourage new interpretations of the plays and poems. Using the text from the landmark The New Oxford Shakespeare Complete Works: Modern Critical Edition, these volumes offer readers the latest thinking on the authentic texts (collated from all surviving original versions of Shakespeare's work) alongside innovative introductions from leading scholars. The texts are accompanied by a comprehensive set of critical apparatus to give readers the best resources to help understand and enjoy Shakespeare's work.ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

'Here will be an old abusing of God's patience and the King's English.'The Merry Wives of Windsor is the only Shakespeare play named entirely after female characters and his only comedy set in England. These features underscore some of its most immediately appealing qualities -- its contemporary realism; its depiction of everyday life; its interest in status and gender; and the language and physicality of its comedy. This edition's introduction focuses on these elements of Merry Wives, setting out their historical contexts but also thinking about what they offer audiences and readers today. It addresses the place of the play within Shakespeare's career and canon and the enduringly popular figure of Falstaff, before thinking about its generic peculiarities as a mixture of "city comedy" and domestic comedy. The edition gives readers a rich breadth of historical context and real-life examples through which to understand and appreciate the text. It also addresses Merry Wives's popular and scholarly reception, to give students, performers, and readers an array of topics, angles, and approaches with which to engage with one of the canon's most lively and life-like plays. The New Oxford Shakespeare offers authoritative editions of Shakespeare's works with introductory materials designed to encourage new interpretations of the plays and poems. Using the text from the landmark The New Oxford Shakespeare Complete Works: Modern Critical Edition, these volumes offer readers the latest thinking on the authentic texts (collated from all surviving original versions of Shakespeare's work) alongside innovative introductions from leading scholars. The texts are accompanied by a comprehensive set of critical apparatus to give readers the best resources to help understand and enjoy Shakespeare's work.ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford World's Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxford's commitment to scholarship, providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features, including expert introductions by leading authorities, helpful notes to clarify the text, up-to-date bibliographies for further study, and much more.

Between 1525 and 1640, a remarkable phenomenon occurred in the world of print: England saw the production of more than two dozen editions identified by their imprints or by contemporaries as 'herbals'. Sarah Neville explains how this genre grew from a series of tiny anonymous octavos to authoritative folio tomes with thousands of woodcuts, and how these curious works quickly became valuable commodities within a competitive print marketplace. Designed to serve readers across the social spectrum, these rich material artifacts represented both a profitable investment for publishers and an opportunity for authors to establish their credibility as botanists. Highlighting the shifting contingencies and regulations surrounding herbals and English printing during the sixteenth and early seventeenth century, the book argues that the construction of scientific authority in Renaissance England was inextricably tied up with the circumstances governing print. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Between 1525 and 1640, a remarkable phenomenon occurred in the world of print: England saw the production of more than two dozen editions identified by their imprints or by contemporaries as 'herbals'. Sarah Neville explains how this genre grew from a series of tiny anonymous octavos to authoritative folio tomes with thousands of woodcuts, and how these curious works quickly became valuable commodities within a competitive print marketplace. Designed to serve readers across the social spectrum, these rich material artifacts represented both a profitable investment for publishers and an opportunity for authors to establish their credibility as botanists. Highlighting the shifting contingencies and regulations surrounding herbals and English printing during the sixteenth and early seventeenth century, the book argues that the construction of scientific authority in Renaissance England was inextricably tied up with the circumstances governing print. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Shakespeare and authorial networks in early modern drama examines how intertextual exchanges shaped Shakespeare’s plays. Drawing on social network theory, it traces his sustained creative dialogue with Michael Drayton, John Marston and George Chapman, showing how shared discourses at cultural institutions and within patronage families informed recurring topics across their works. The study argues that Shakespeare’s engagement with institutional and social environments did not require direct membership or patronage; instead, looser ties influenced his authorship. By revealing how thematic and stylistic developments emerged through long-term conversations among playwrights, the book offers new insight into Shakespeare’s writing process and collaborative practices. It provides alternative models of authorship, influence and literary exchange that nuance conventional accounts of early modern patronage and highlight the significance of networks in shaping dramatic production.