Romeo And Juliet: Third Series

by William Shakespeare, René Weis (Editor), Ann Thompson (Editor), David Scott Kastan (Editor), H. R. Woudhuysen (Editor)

Overview

This major new edition of Shakespeare's greatest tragedy of love argues that that play is ultimately Juliet's. The play text is expertly edited and the on-page commentary notes discuss issues of staging, theme, meaning and Shakespeare's use of his sources to give the reader deep and engaging insights into the play.
The richly illustrated introduction looks at the play's exceptionally beautiful and complex language and focuses on the figure of Juliet as being at its centre. Rene Weis discusses the play's critical, stage and film history, including West Side Story and Baz Luhrmann's seminal film Romeo + Juliet. An authoritative edition from a leading scholar giving the reader a penetrating and wide-ranging insight into this ever popular play

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781903436912
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	07/01/2012
Series:	The Arden Shakespeare Third Series , #13
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	454
Sales rank:	281,652
Product dimensions:	8.40(w) x 11.00(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Rene Weis is Professor of English at University College London and a distinguished editor and biographer of Shakespeare.

Date of Death:

2018

Place of Birth:

Stratford-upon-Avon, United Kingdom

Place of Death:

Stratford-upon-Avon, United Kingdom

Table of Contents

List of illustrations ix

General editors' preface xi

Preface xvi

Introduction 1

Writing love 1

'All the daughters of my father's house' 2

Love's young sweet song: 'an excellent conceited tragedy' 7

Love and literary form 19

Time's winged chariot 24

The dates of first performance and publication 33

Lord Hunsdon's servants and will Kemp at the Curtain (1596-7?) 33

Earth tremors and thirteen-year-old children 36

Nashe's have with you to Saffron Walden (1596) and Romeo and Juliet 39

A Midsummer Night's Dream 41

Sources 43

Brooke's Tragical History of Romeus and Juliet 44

Tybalt, Mercutio and Paris 47

Performing love 52

From London (c. 1596) and Cambridge (c. 1598-1601) to Douai (1694-5) 53

From Garrick (1748) to Berlioz (1839) and Cushman (1845) 60

From Gounod (1867) and Tchaikovsky (1870/80) to Gielgud and Prokofiev (1935) 69

From West Side Story (1957) to Old Pronunciation shakespeare (2004) 77

The age of Zeffirelli (1960-8) 79

Bogdanov and Luhrmann: from Alfa Romeo to Clockwork Orange Shakespeare and beyond (1986-) 85

The texts: Q1 (1597) and Q2 (1599) 94

Nurse's italics and Capulet's Wife's speech prefixes 98

Shakespeare's handwriting and what it has left us 100

Second thoughts: Queen Mab and others 102

From Q1 to Q2 105

Q1's stage directions: a record of performance or 'literary' ornaments? 110

Editorial procedures 115

Romeo and Juliet 117

Appendices 339

1 Q1 and Q4 readings 339

2 Q1 Romeo and Juliet 341

3 Rhyme 418

4 Casting and doubling 421

Abbreviations and references 427

Abbreviations used in notes 427

Works by and partly by Shakespeare 427

Editions of Shakespeare collated 428

Other works cited or used 431

Index 441

Editorial Reviews

Rene Weis's Romeo and Juliet lives up to the high standards of the Arden Shakespeare, with an extensive introduction, expansive editorial glosses, and even a facsimile reproduction of Q1 in an appendix.” —Garrett A. Sullivan, Jr., Rice University

From the Publisher

Rene Weis's Romeo and Juliet lives up to the high standards of the Arden Shakespeare, with an extensive introduction, expansive editorial glosses, and even a facsimile reproduction of Q1 in an appendix.

Garrett A. Sullivan