Download or read book Four Comedies written by William Shakespeare and published by Bantam Classics. This book was released on 2009-08-26 with total page 736 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Taming of the Shrew Robust and bawdy, The Taming of the Shrew captivates audiences with outrageous humor as Katharina, the shrew, engages in a contest of wills–and love–with her bridegroom, Petruchio, in a comedy of unmatched theatrical brilliance, filled with visual gags and witty repartee. A Midsummer Night's Dream Fairy magic, love spells, and an enchanted wood turn the mismatched rivalries of four young lovers into a marvelous mix-up of desire and enchantment, all touched by Shakespeare’s inimitable vision of the intriguing relationship between dreams and the waking world. The Merchant of Venice This dark comedy of love and money contains one of the truly mythic figures in literature–Shylock, the Jewish moneylender. The “pound of flesh” he demands as payment of Antonio’s debt has become a universal metaphor for vengeance. Here, pathos and farce combine with moral complexity and romantic entanglements, to display the extraordinary power and range of Shakespeare at his best. Twelfth Night Set in a topsy-turvy world like a holiday revel, this comedy juxtaposes a romantic plot involving separated twins and mistaken identity with a more satiric one about the humiliation of a pompous killjoy. The hilarity is touched with melancholy, and the play ends, not with laughter, but with a clown’s plaintive song. Each Edition Includes: • Comprehensive explanatory notes • Vivid introductions and the most up-to-date scholarship • Clear, modernized spelling and punctuation, enabling contemporary readers to understand the Elizabethan English • Completely updated, detailed bibliographies and performance histories • An interpretive essay on film adaptations of the play, along with an extensive filmography

Download or read book The Cambridge Introduction to Shakespeare s Comedies written by Penny Gay and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2008-04-07 with total page 197 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why did theatre audiences laugh in Shakespeare's day? Why do they still laugh now? What did Shakespeare do with the conventions of comedy that he inherited, so that his plays continue to amuse and move audiences? What do his comedies have to say about love, sex, gender, power, family, community, and class? What place have pain, cruelty, and even death in a comedy? Why all those puns? In a survey that travels from Shakespeare's earliest experiments in farce and courtly love-stories to the great romantic comedies of his middle years and the mould-breaking experiments of his last decade's work, this book addresses these vital questions. Organised thematically, and covering all Shakespeare's comedies from the beginning to the end of his career, it provides readers with a map of the playwright's comic styles, showing how he built on comedic conventions as he further enriched the possibilities of the genre.

Download or read book The Evolution of Shakespeare s Comedy written by Larry S. Champion and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 1970 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The evolution of Shakespeare's comedy, in Larry Champion's view, is apparent in the expansion of his comic vision to include a complete reflection of human life while maintaining a comic detachment for the audience. Like the other popular dramatists of Elizabethan England, Shakespeare used the diverse comic motifs and devices which time and custom had proved effective. He went further, however, and created progressively deeper levels of characterization and plot interaction, thereby forming characters who were not merely devices subordinated to the needs of the plot. Shakespeare's development as a comic playwright, suggests Champion, was "consistently in the direction of complexity or depth of characterization." His earliest works, like those of his contemporaries, are essentially situation comedies: the humor arises from action rather than character. There is no significant development of the main characters; instead, they are manipulated into situations which are humorous as a result, for example, of mistaken identity or slapstick confusion. The ensuing phase of Shakespeare's comedy sets forth plots in which the emphasis is on identity rather than physical action, a revelation of character which occurs in one of two forms: either a hypocrite is exposed for what he actually is or a character who has assumed an unnatural or abnormal pose is forced to realize and admit the ridiculousness of his position. In the final comedies involving sin and sacrificial forgiveness, however, character development is concerned with a "transformation of values." Although each of the comedies is discussed, Champion concentrates on nine, dividing them according to the complexity of characterization. He pursues as well the playwright's efforts to achieve for the spectator the detached stance so vital to comedy. Shakespeare obtained this perspective, Champion observes, through experimentation with the use of material mirroring the main action--mockery, parody, or caricature--and through the use of a "comic pointer" who is himself involved in the action but is sufficiently independent of the other characters to provide the audience with an omniscient view.

Download or read book The Cambridge Companion to Shakespearean Comedy written by Alexander Leggatt and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2002 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An accessible, wide-ranging and informed introduction to Shakespeare's comedies, dark comedies and romances, first published in 2001.

Download or read book Names as Metaphors in Shakespeare s Comedies written by Grant W. Smith and published by Vernon Press. This book was released on 2021-09-07 with total page 371 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Names as Metaphors in Shakespeare’s Comedies' presents a comprehensive study of names in Shakespeare’s comedies. Although names are used in daily speech as simple designators, often with minimal regard for semantic or phonological suggestiveness, their coinage is always based on analogy. They are words (i.e., signs) borrowed from previous referents and contexts, and applied to new referents. Thus, in the literary use of language, names are figurative inventions and have measurable thematic significance: they evoke an association of attributes between two or more referents, contextualize each work of literature within its time, and reflect the artistic development of the writer. In the introduction, Smith describes the literary use of names as creative choices that show the indebtedness of authors to previous literature, as well as their imaginative descriptions (etymologically and phonologically) of memorable character types, and their references to cultural phenomena that make their names meaningful to their contemporary readers and audience. This book presents fourteen essays demonstrating the analytical models explained in the introduction. These essays focus on Shakespeare’s comedies as presented in the First Folio. They do not follow the chronological order of their composition; instead, the individual essays give special attention to differences between the plays that suggest Shakespeare’s artistic development, including the varied sources of his borrowings, the differences between his etymological and phonological coinages, the frequency and types of his topical references, and his use of epithets and generics. This book will appeal to Shakespeare students and scholars at all levels, particularly those who are keen on studying his comedies. This study will also be relevant for researchers and graduate students interested in onomastics. He can be reached at [email protected].

Download or read book Shakespeare s Comedies written by William Shakespeare and published by . This book was released on 1909 with total page 406 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Metamorphoses of Shakespearean Comedy written by William C. Carroll and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2014-07-14 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book argues that the idea of metamorphosis is central to both the theory and practice of Shakespearean comedy. It offers a synthesis of several major themes of Shakespearean comedy--identity, change, desire, marriage, and comic form--under the master trope of transformation. Originally published in 1985. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Download or read book The Comedy of Errors written by William Shakespeare and published by . This book was released on 1904 with total page 94 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Four Adapted Shakespearean Comedies for children written by Geof Walker and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2013-02-25 with total page 183 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Geof Walker has produced four Shakespearean comedies over 20 years for eleven year olds. They have subsequently been used all over the world to ensure children and their teachers enjoy Shakespeare. They have all been described as oustanding by OFSTED and the audiences who laughed their way through 90 minutes of mirth. They are to be commended to anyone who has little knowledge of the Bard and wants children to enjoy an amazing event.

Download or read book Shakespearean Comedies written by William Shakespeare and published by . This book was released on 1902 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Shakespeare s Comedies written by Ralph Berry and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-03-17 with total page 207 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this lucid and original study, first published in 1972, Ralph Berry discusses the ten comedies that run from The Comedy of Errors to Twelfth Night. Berry’s purpose is to identify the form of each play by relating the governing idea of the play to the action that expresses it. To this end the author employs a variety of standpoints and techniques, and taken together, these chapters present a lively and coherent view of Shakespeare’s techniques, concerns, and development. This title will be of interests to students of literature and drama.

Download or read book Shakespeare s Comedies A Very Short Introduction written by Bart van Es and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016-03-24 with total page 144 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From The Two Gentlemen of Verona in the early 1590s to The Two Noble Kinsmen at the end of his career around 1614, Shakespeare wrote at least eighteen plays that can be called 'comedies': a far higher number than that for any other genre in which he wrote. So what is a Shakespearean comedy? We associate these plays with such themes as mistaken identities, happy marriages, and exuberant cross dressing, but how representative are these of the oeuvre as a whole? In this Very Short Introduction, Bart van Es explores the full range of the playwright's comic writing, from the neat classical plotting of early works like The Comedy of Errors to the corrupt world of the so-called problem plays, written in the middle years of Shakespeare's life. Examining Shakespeare's influences and sources, van Es compares his plays to those of his rivals, and looks at the history of the plays in performance, from the biographies of Shakespeare's original actors to the plays' endless reinvention in modern stage productions and in films. Identifying the key qualities that make Shakespearean comedy distinctive, van Es traces the changing nature of Shakespeare's comic writing over the course of a career that spanned nearly a quarter century of theatrical change. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

Download or read book A Kind of Wild Justice written by Linda Anderson and published by University of Delaware Press. This book was released on 1987 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study demonstrates not only that the devices of revenge are structurally useful in comedy, but also that there is a consistent conception of revenge as an ethical social instrument in the comedies of Shakespeare.

Download or read book Shakespearean Comedies written by William Shakespeare and published by . This book was released on 1900 with total page 552 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Shakespeare and the Traditions of Comedy written by Leo Salingar and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1974 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For students of English and European literature, renaissance studies, comparative literature, drama and classics.

Download or read book The World Must be Peopled written by Michael D. Friedman and published by Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press. This book was released on 2002 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book surveys the impact of these recent productions and suggests additional ways in which a feminist approach to performance might produce theatrical versions of these plays more consistent with their generic features."--BOOK JACKET.

Download or read book The Comedies of Shakespeare written by William Shakespeare and published by . This book was released on 1960 with total page 1192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: