Shakespearean comedy has as much to do with the structure and movement of the drama as with the wit of its dialogue or the humour of its characters. In these four comedies there is a near-tragic crisis at which disaster or happiness may ensue, but the overriding force of goodwill and the power of understanding, love and generosity brings us through to a joyful conclusion. In comedy, 'sweet are the uses of adversity', so that the most bitter circumstances - exile, oppression, unrequited love - can give rise to higher feelings of friendship, respect, sympathy and acceptance. In this collection of Shakespeare's four most spirited comedies, each text comes complete with notes and an introduction, making this edition of particular value to students, scholars and theatre-goers.
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From the Publisher
An exciting new edition of the complete works of Shakespeare with these features: Illustrated with photographs from New York Shakespeare Festival productions, vivid readable introductions for each play by noted scholar David Bevington, a lively personal foreword by Joseph Papp, an insightful essay on the play in performance, modern spelling and pronunciation, up-to-date annotated bibliographies, and convenient listing of key passages.
--This text refers to an alternate
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From the Inside Flap
An exciting new edition of the complete works of Shakespeare with these features: Illustrated with photographs from New York Shakespeare Festival productions, vivid readable introductions for each play by noted scholar David Bevington, a lively personal foreword by Joseph Papp, an insightful essay on the play in performance, modern spelling and pronunciation, up-to-date annotated bibliographies, and convenient listing of key passages.
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Four Comedies,
By A Customer
This review is from: Four Comedies: The Taming of the Shrew, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Merchant of Venice, Twelfth Night (Bantam Classics) (Paperback)
This book contains the four "best" comedies of Shakespeare, along with an excellent foreword by Joseph Papp. For each play, it contains a very well written introduction (one that is not only on the play, but links each of them together), Shakespeare's original source material (example: "A Merry Jest of a Shrewd and Curst Wife Lapped in Morel's Skin" for "the Taming of the Shrew"), and well commented textual notes. I found this collection particularly useful for an "upper-level" look at these four plays.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent,
This review is from: Four Comedies (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)
A fascinating discussion of four of Shakespeare's "joyous" comedies, each with an introductory essay, extensive footnotes, and comparison of the various source texts (Quarto, Forum).
The one oddity here: why did they include "Taming of the Shrew" instead of the more sophisticated "Much Ado About Nothing", which also focusses on the battle of the sexes?
1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Read the plays by all means - but get a different edition!,
By Eliezer ben Avrohom (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Four Comedies (Penguin Classics) (Paperback)
I have seen and used much better editions with much more easily understandable and useful annotations. Look around.
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
The note that is sounded in such a line as 'The course of true love never did run smooth', that haunting lyrical expression of sentiment which is such a pronounced feature of much Shakespeare comedy, is not to be heard in The Taming of the Shrew. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
only pretty ring time, hey nonino, hey ding, thou knave, thou wakest, three mer, changeling boy, banished duke, yellow stockings, hold thy peace Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Sir Toby, Twelfth Night, Sir Topas, Enter Sir, Signor Gremio, Enter Baptista, Sir Rowland, Peter Quince, Christopher Sly, Dover Wilson, Enter Puck, Signor Baptista, Enter Orlando, Enter Rosalind, The Merchant of Venice, Enter Biondello, Forest of Arden, Love's Labour's Lost, Ben Jonson, Enter Maria, Enter Theseus, Exit Duke, King Lear, Middle Temple, Second Folio New!
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
The note that is sounded in such a line as 'The course of true love never did run smooth', that haunting lyrical expression of sentiment which is such a pronounced feature of much Shakespeare comedy, is not to be heard in The Taming of the Shrew. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
only pretty ring time, hey nonino, hey ding, thou knave, thou wakest, three mer, changeling boy, banished duke, yellow stockings, hold thy peace Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Sir Toby, Twelfth Night, Sir Topas, Enter Sir, Signor Gremio, Enter Baptista, Sir Rowland, Peter Quince, Christopher Sly, Dover Wilson, Enter Puck, Signor Baptista, Enter Orlando, Enter Rosalind, The Merchant of Venice, Enter Biondello, Forest of Arden, Love's Labour's Lost, Ben Jonson, Enter Maria, Enter Theseus, Exit Duke, King Lear, Middle Temple, Second Folio New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
55
books
cite this book:
See all 55 books citing this book
- Four Comedies: The Taming of the Shrew, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Merchant of Venice, Twelfth Night (Bantam Classics) by William Shakespeare on 6 pages
- A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare in Front Matter, and Back Matter
- The School for Scandal and Other Plays (Oxford World's Classics) by Richard Brinsley Sheridan in Front Matter, and Back Matter
- Great Comedies and Tragedies (Wordsworth Classics of World Literature) by William Shakespeare in Front Matter (1), and Front Matter (2)
- Julius Caesar (Bantam Classics) by William Shakespeare in Front Matter, and Back Matter
See all 55 books citing this book
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