Stanley W. Wells – författare

Modernizing Shakespeare's Spelling With Three Studies of the Text of `Henry V'

This volume, an updated and revised version of the "Bibliographical Guide" published in 1974, includes nine new chapters. Like its predecessor, it aims to help readers deal with the immense amount of scholarly and critical writings on Shakespeare. The contributors provide critical guides to reading in their allotted areas. The bulk of the volume is made up of chapters on separate works or groups of works. Other chapters are devoted to the studies of Shakespeare, to studies of his text and of his plays in relation to the theatre both of his own time and of later ages, and to recent developments in theoretical criticism. Full references are given for all the writings mentioned.

A comprehensive reference work on Shakespearean textual problems, setting forth the editorial principles of the Oxford Edition and providing a concise history of Shakespeare editing. Includes for each play, textual notes, press-variants, discussions of emendations and plausible alternative readings, and much more. Indispensable for serious students.

These articles, reprinted from various volumes of Shakespeare Survey, concern three plays which have gradually become appreciated by critics and in the theatre. Since the early years of this century they have been seen as an interrelated group, with a peculiarly twentieth-century appeal. Measure for Measure, concerned as it is with adolescents' first encounters with sex, love and death, has a special appeal for young people; Troilus and Cressida, set in the Trojan War, has been found deeply relevant to our own war-troubled times; and All's Well That Ends Well, sharing these preoccupations, is a necessary companion piece. John Barton, who has directed all three plays, is interviewed in one of the articles, which together illustrate the often heated controversy about the plays. Reviews and photographs of post-war productions at Stratford are also included. The book as a whole is designed as a stimulating introduction to these plays and to conflicting interpretations of them.