Continuum Shakespeare Dictionaries – serie

Women in Shakespeare: A Dictionary is a comprehensive reference guide to Shakespeare and women. An A-Z of over 350 entries explores the role of women within Shakespearean drama, how women were represented on the Shakespearean stage, and the role of women in Shakespeare's personal and professional lives. Women in Shakespeare examines in detail the language employed by Shakespeare in his representation of women in the full range of his poetry and plays and the implications these representations have for the position of women in Elizabethan and Jacobean society. Women in Shakespeare is an ideal guide to Shakespeare's women for all students and scholars of Shakespeare.

The Continuum Shakespeare Dictionaries provide authoritative yet accessible guides to the principal subject-areas covered by the plays and poetry of Shakespeare. The dictionaries provide readers with a comprehensive guide to the topic under discussion, its occurrence and significance in Shakespeare's works, and its contemporary meanings. Entries range from a few lines in length to mini-essays, providing the opportunity to explore an important literary or historical concept or idea in depth. Entries include: apothecary, bear-baiting, Caesar, degree, gentry, Henry V, kingdom, London, masque, nobility, plague, society, treason, usury, whore and youth. They follow an easy to use three-part structure: a general introduction to the term or topic; a survey of its significance and use in Shakespeare's plays and a guide to further reading.

Musical references, allusions to music, and music stage directions abound in Shakespeare, ranging from simple trumpet flourishes to sophisticated, philosophical allegory. Music in Shakespeare: A Dictionary identifies all musical terms found in the Shakespeare canon. An A-Z of over 300 entries includes a definition of each musical term in its historical and theoretical context, and explores the extent of Shakespeare's use of musical imagery across the full range of his dramatic and poetic work. Music in Shakespeare also analyses the usage of musical instruments and sound effects on the Shakespearean stage, providing descriptions of the instruments employed in the Elizabethan and Jacobean theatres. This is a comprehensive reference guide for scholars and students with interests ranging from the thematic and allegorical relevance of music in Shakespeare's works to the history of performance. It is also aimed at the growing number of directors and actors concerned with recovering the staging conditions of the early modern theatre.

This is an A-Z reference guide to political and economic terms, concepts and references in Shakespeare. Shakespeare's plays are pervaded by political and economic words and concepts, not only in the histories and tragedies but also in the comedies and romances. The lexicon of political and economic language in Shakespeare does not consist merely of arcane terms whose shifting meanings require exposition, but includes an enormous number of relatively simple words which possess a structural significance in the configuration of meanings. Often operating by such means as puns, they open up a surprising number of possibilities.The purpose of this Dictionary is to reveal the conceptual nucleus of each term and explore the contexts in which it is embedded. The dictionary covers the whole spectrum from jokes to political invective. The overlap between the political and economic dimensions of a word in Shakespeare's drama is particularly exciting as he is highly attuned to the interactions of these two spheres of human activity and their centrality in human affairs."The Continuum Shakespeare Dictionary" series provides authoritative guides to major subject-areas covered by the poetry and plays. The dictionaries provide readers with a comprehensive guide to the topic under discussion, especially its contemporary meanings, and to its occurrence and significance in Shakespeare's works. Comprehensive bibliographies accompany many of the items. Entries range from a few lines in length to mini-essays, providing the opportunity to explore an important literary or historical concept or idea in depth.

This is a guide to the ailments, general medical concepts and cures and therapies in Shakespeare that includes recent critical work on the early modern body. Physicians, readers and scholars have long been fascinated by Shakespeare's medical language and the presence or mentioning of healers, wise women, surgeons and doctors in his work. This dictionary includes ailments, general medical concepts (elements, humours, spirits) and cures and therapies (ranging from blood-letting to herbal medicines) in Shakespeare, but also body parts, bodily functions, and entries on 'the pathological body' taking into account recent critical work on the early modern body. It will provide a comprehensive guide for those needing to understand specific references in the plays, in particular, archaic diagnoses or therapies ('choleric', 'tub-fast') and words that have changed their meanings ('phlegmatic', 'urinal'); those who want to learn more about early modern medical concepts ('elements', 'humors'); and those who might have questions about the embodied experience of living in Shakespeare's England.Entries reveal what terms and concepts might mean in the context of Shakespeare's plays, and the significance that a particular disease, body part or function has in individual plays and the Shakespearean corpus at large. "The Continuum Shakespeare Dictionary" series provides authoritative guides to major subject-areas covered by the poetry and plays. The dictionaries provide readers with a comprehensive guide to the topic under discussion, especially its contemporary meanings, and to its occurrence and significance in Shakespeare's works. Comprehensive bibliographies accompany many of the items. Entries range from a few lines in length to mini-essays, providing the opportunity to explore an important literary or historical concept or idea in depth.