William Shakespeare, "Much Ado About Nothing" (The Arden Shakespeare), 3rd Edition
Edited by Claire McEachern
Arden Shakespeare | 3rd Edition | 2006 | ISBN: 1903436834 | 365 pages | siPDF | 6.4 MB
Edited by Claire McEachern
Arden Shakespeare | 3rd Edition | 2006 | ISBN: 1903436834 | 365 pages | siPDF | 6.4 MB
Much Ado About Nothing boasts one of Shakespeare's most delightful heroines, most dancing wordplay, and the endearing spectacle of intellectual and social self-importance bested by the desire to love and be loved in return. It offers both the dancing wit of the "merry war" between the sexes, and a sobering vision of the costs of that combat for both men and women. Shakespeare dramatizes a social world in all of its vibrant particulars, in which characters are shaped by the relations between social convention and individual choice.
This edition of the play offers in its introduction and commentary an extensive discussion of the materials that informed Shakespeare's compositional choices, both those conventional sources and other contexts, from cuckold jokes to conduct books, which inform the ideas and identities of this play. Particular attention is devoted to Renaissance understandings of gender identity and social rank, as well as to the social valences of Shakespeare's stylistic choices. A treatment of staging possibilities offers illustrations drawn from the earliest and recent theatrical practices, and a critical history examines the fate of the play in the changing trends of academic scholarship.
From the Back Cover
The Arden Shakespeare is the established scholarly edition of Shakespeare's plays. Now in its third series, Arden offers the best in contemporary scholarship. Each volume guides you to a deeper understanding and appreciation of Shakespeare's work.
This edition of Much Ado About Nothing provides:
- A clear and authoritative text, edited to the highest standards of scholarship.
- Detailed notes and commentary on the same page as the text.
- A full, illustrated introduction to the play's historical, cultural and performance contexts.
- An in-depth survey of critical approaches to the play.
- A full index to the introduction and notes
- A select bibliography of references and further reading.
About The Arden Shakespeare series
Arden Shakespeare is the most academically rigorous Shakespeare series in print, and the best-known English literature brand worldwide. In 1995 the Third Series of The Arden Shakespeare was launched. Now published under the imprint Arden Shakespeare, under the General Editorship of Richard Proudfoot, Ann Thompson, David Scott Kastan and Henry Woudhuysen, the Arden Shakespeare Third Series is nearing completion. Each new volume supersedes the corresponding Second Series text, being meticulously edited from the original sources by a contemporary scholar.
Contents
List of IllustrationsTags: Shakespeare, Drama, Literature, LiteraryCriticism
General Editors' Preface
The Text
Commentary and Textual Notes
Introduction
Preface
Introduction
Building a play: sources and contexts
The usual suspects: Ariosto and Bandello
Shakespeare's transformations of his sources: the creation of a social world
The maid
'How many gentlemen?'
The villain
The lover
Beyond the plot
Denouement
Dialogue and debate forms
Sexual stereotypes
Disdain
Modifications of type
Chaste, silent and obedient
Hero
Cuckolds
Structure and style
'The course of true love'
Two plots?
Style
Prose and the prosaic
Euphuism
Verbal handshakes
'The even road of a blank verse'
Image patterns
Songs
Staging Much Ado
Tonal choices
Social representations
Choice of place and time
Cultural moment
Afterlives
Origins
Criticism
Text
First impressions
Making a book
Who's in, who's out
Who gets to say what?
Much Ado About Nothing
Appendix: Casting chart
Abbreviations and references
Index
William Shakespeare, "As ...rden Shakespeare), 3rd Edition
William Shakespeare, "The...rden Shakespeare), 3rd Edition
Michael Dobson & Stanley W...Companion To Shakespeare"
John Sutherland & Cedric W...zzles (World's Classics)"
Scott McMillin, ed., "Res...ritical Editions), 2nd Edition
Marc Norman & Tom Stoppard...re in Love: A Screenplay"
Jane Austen, "Emma" (Norton Critical Editions), 3rd Edition
Jane Austen, "Mansfield Park" (Norton Critical Editions)
Jane Austen, "Pride and P...ritical Editions), 3rd Edition
Charlotte Bronte, "Jane E...ritical Editions), 3rd Edition
Emily Bronte, "Wuthering ...ritical Editions), 4th Edition
George Eliot, "Middlemarc...ritical Editions), 2nd Edition
Maria Tatar, "The Classic...Norton Critical Edition)"
John Rignall (ed), "Oxfor...ompanion to George Eliot"
R. C. Terry, "Oxford Reader's Companion to Trollope"