What are
/r/shakespeare's
favorite Products & Services?
From 3.5 billion Reddit comments
The most popular Products mentioned in /r/shakespeare:
The most popular Services mentioned in /r/shakespeare:
Project Gutenberg
Internet Archive
Open Culture
The Great Courses
Worldcat
Podomatic
BBC iPlayer
Shutterstock
Google Play Books
LibriVox
NPR News
AbeBooks
TinyURL
Barnes & Noble
Google Sites
The most popular reviews in /r/shakespeare:
Personally, I think it's always worth reading the synopsis. Almost every time I go to see Shakespeare I read a synopsis. Personally I like Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare and other children's versions. You don;t want to get lost wondering who such-and-such a minor character is or why so-and-so is plotting against someone. Knowing the plot helps you focus on the poetry IMO.
I've got the Yale University Press edition published in 1955. It's slightly smaller than the original but not enough to tell.
I really enjoyed Marjorie Garber's Shakespeare After All: The Later Plays. Try Open Culture too.
I would advise against focusing on the title characters for a couple of reasons:
1) Everyone else is going to pick the title characters
2) You have to do a lot more, broad, unfocused reading
Title characters have way too many lines - often upwards of 800, or in Hamlet much more than that (about 1500 lines). Because it sounds like the topic is broad enough you might be able to get away with focusing on the smaller characters who have 100 lines or less, but who still experience some development throughout the play.
Go to this website to get an idea of which characters have smaller lines loads, then cross reference this list to a list of which scenes each character appears in. Now you have a very short list of characters who appear multiple times throughout the play with smaller line loads.
Now that you have only a few pages to read instead of hundreds, you can take a much more focused and specific look at the arc of each individual small character. Some fun characters to analyze might be Cordelia from King Lear (116 lines), Laertes from Hamlet (205), Malcom from Macbeth (211), and Roderigo from Othello (114), all of whom happen to be featured most prominently at the very beginning and end of each play.
This will end up being a plug (sorry!) but we do exactly this in a recurring segment on the Shakespeare podcast NO HOLDS BARD - pull a homework question from the Internet and give it the attention it either does (or doesn't) deserve. You can hear an example around the ten minute mark of this episode from earlier this month: https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/noholdsbard/episodes/2017-01-05T19_23_50-08_00
The recent book Shakespeare in a Divided Americahas an interesting section about how Caliban has been portrayed to either vilify immigrants or show a white savior myth. Really interesting book for a Shakespeare geek
I love the title of that article ! I may start calling Q1 “The Badass Quarto”! I also love the article itself. I’m a big fan of Tiffany Stern’s groundbreaking work on Folio and original practices Making Shakespeare and Shakespeare in Parts (with Simon Palfrey), and this ongoing scholarly catfight she’s having with Bouras is precious! Thanks for the link to the insightful (inciteful? ) article!
PS - don’t get me started on the Dr. Seuss parody- Green Eggs and Hamlet !
http://www.amazon.com/The-Life-William-Shakespeare-Biography/dp/1118281527
This book has a chapter called The Dangerous Year, which covers what I'm talking about. You can see like a page of the chapter in the Amazon preview.
This series of documentaries also has some good information.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream: A User’s Guide by Michael Pennington. A fun but serious analysis of a play often written off as fluff. Pennington directed it and discuses issues like how to treat the fairies and how Hippolyta can convey her thoughts just by reacting to Theseus, since she doesn’t talk much, and how to keep the chaos in the lovers’ scenes under control. Great insights on my favorite Shakespeare play.
There’s a lot actually though I’m not sure about the Maryland connection. I think the definitive work is by Lucy Munro at Kings College London. She’s super nice and I bet if you emailed her you’d get a reply.
Andrew Gurr has also written substantially about them.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Children-Queens-Revels-Jacobean-Repertory/dp/0521843561
this is one of my favorite mediums
Their work is amazing. I live in LA and am stuck in traffic a lot so I devour audiobooks. I have most of the plays on audio. They're more for hearing than seeing anyway so it's quite effective. I believe the pirate bay would oblige you as well if you are so inclined in that regard.
Aw man, I got excited, I thought a movie was coming. I rarely find such projects interesting. I've always said, I'm in it for the Shakespeare, so when an author writes their own storyline inventing whatever newer characters they want and picking and choosing which original characters to keep or kill, there's rarely enough meat left on the bones to hold my interest. I'd rather have "retelling" versions, so they at least try to hang onto more of the original, even if it's just in spirit. I mean, look at something like "The Story of Edgar Sawtelle", a retelling of Hamlet with intelligent dogs. I loved it.
If you're interested in Tempest fan fiction you might also like Caliban's Hour by Tad Williams.
That sounds like Folger. Definitely my favorite editions. Did it look like this?
This Thing of Darkness imagines Shakespeare in the Jamestown colony...where he's confronted by a monster out of legend.
There is a great book that covers that exact topic and many other Shakespeare related things in detail.
https://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Bard-Folgers-Obsessive-Shakespeares/dp/1439118256
I highly recommend it.
I highly recommend these two books.
Alternative Shakespeare Monologues for Women
More Alternative Shakespeare Monologues for Women
Well worth the money - and will give you monologue ideas for years to come. And they typically shy away from the overdone ones (hence the titles). Simon Dunmore is a phenomenal editor and gives you enough information to contextualize the speeches - but also lots of info in case you wanna dive deeper.
First, you should get yourself a complete works. I use the RSC, which is based off the First Folio and has helpful summaries and efficient annotations for each play. However, take the time to decide what version you want, as opinions differ.
Perhaps start with the ones that you studied at school, as you may already be familiar with the text. Reading Shakespeare can be quite difficult without practice so it is best to start with something you know. You might rely on the annotations frequently to start with, but you'll soon get the hang of it.
The shorter and simpler plays also may be a good starting point. Macbeth or Midsummer Night's Dream, for example, are relatively straightforward, whereas the history plays are quite difficult to grapple with. Do not be afraid to jump straight in from beginning to end in whatever edition you choose. The multi-part histories are best read together, but otherwise it can be helpful to mix it up if you get tired of a particular genre.
If you get stuck on a particular play, watching a production or reading a summary can make some things much clearer. If you are confident, just go for it, picking out whatever plays you like the look of in whatever order. But don't be put off if you don't follow the language instantly, these things get better the more you read. Good luck and enjoy!
I quite liked this 2012 version directed by Gregory Doran. It's a filmed version of his stage adaptations (a few live-audience scenes are edited in). I was really impressed with Paterson Joseph's Brutus. I had found him annoyingly hammy in previous roles (Neverwhere and Doctor Who), but his heightened performance style really seems to fit Shakespeare well. He also plays the Duke of York in the Hollow Crown Henry VI movies -- I'm looking forward to seeing him in that.
If you are doing a history-based project, I cannot emphasize enough the book [Shakespeare in Production: Macbeth](https://www.amazon.com/Macbeth-Shakespeare-Production-William/dp/0521534828/ref=sr_1_4?crid=51TAVPB9FV7X&keywords=shakespeare+in+production+macbeth&qid=1659786161&sprefix=shakespeare+in+production+macbeth%2Caps%2C129&sr=8-4).
The first half of each book in the series is a comprehensive overview of major productions of the play in general, as well as the context in which each production was made, and critical reviews of those productions. The entire introduction would be good reading for your project, and it looks like there is a good section for the Welles production, specifically.
The second half of the book is the play itself, with footnotes indicating how the different scenes were treated in various productions (to show the wide variety in which any scene can be delivered, as depicted in these productions).
While you would be skipping to the 1940s for Orson Welles, there are usually some interesting notes about how the play was treated in the 1800s.
Again, I think it would almost be bad for you to NOT consider this one. You can see a lot of it on the "Look Inside" sample on Amazon.
The Globe Theater has a streaming app with full-length productions of every nearly play. Or you can stream the shows individually for something like $5 USD. Great way to get access to world-class productions. The way they are filmed is pretty intelligent.
As far as commentary, I really like Harold Goddard's The Meaning of Shakespeare. Gives a good overview of dimensions of intrigue that are present all the major plays. From there you can dive into whatever dimension suits your fancy: the poetry, the history, the psychology, the development of self-consciousness (Harold Bloom's favorite dimension), the politics, the mysticism, the linguistics... these plays are everything.
Lot of great answers in here, but I really recommend using a Lexicon for questions like this. You can usually get really great definition specific to Shakespeare, as well as see other instances of the word's use in other plays.
It's SUPER interesting. Sometimes even looking up words you think you know will give you better understanding of Shakespeare's use!
I love this physical copy, but there is a free website too
The Routledge critical essays series always has a nice collection with a variety of perspectives. They can be pricey but sometimes go on sale. https://www.amazon.com/Tempest-Critical-Essays-Shakespeare-Criticism/dp/0415763797/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?crid=2CW64D16OGT5L&keywords=tempest+critical+essays&qid=1657191300&sprefix=twmpest+critical+edsays%2Caps%2C74&sr=8-2
Peter Usher was the guy who first laid it out afaik and has published a book or two: Shakespeare and the Dawn of Modern Science.. As I said, sadly not popular fodder as yet.
I'll second <em>The Shakespeare Wars</em> and add <em>Shakespeare's Storytelling</em>. Wars is a great history of Shakespearean scholarship, and Storytelling will give you a good starting grammar for talking about formal elements like character flaws, conflict, and so on.
The RSC did one, I saw it livestreamed! Incredibly gory - and utterly fantastic acting! I saw Globe one too, this is better!
Genuine dvd available recorded by RSC
Here's the screenplay. There are three main texts: the First Quarto (aka the Bad Quarto) from 1603, the Second Quarto (aka the Good Quarto) from 1604, and the First Folio from 1623. Lots of differences between those texts - the quartos may have been bootlegs, whereas the Folio was more directly based on scripts. There are several later quartos and folios, but they all seem to be based on these three texts. Either way, Branagh squashed a lot of different texts together for his "complete" version.
I would say the Arden edition is your best bet: https://www.amazon.com/Merchant-Venice-Third-Arden-Shakespeare/dp/1903436818. Stay away from “No Fear Shakespeare”, many of the translations therein are over-simplified and inaccurate. Also use https://www.shakespeareswords.com as a resource as you go through. Arden won’t give you insight on every single line, so the latter is useful when the former falls through.
The David Tennant version is good, available in dvd. https://smile.amazon.co.uk/Hamlet-DVD-David-Tennant/dp/B002PXHRFQ/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?crid=1WNXZZ5MKVGMI&keywords=hamlet+dvd+david+tennant&qid=1645805939&sprefix=hamlet+dvd%2Caps%2C65&sr=8-1
I also like the Kenneth Branagh one. Shame Andrew Scott’s BBC version not available to buy, he was really good! Saw Benedict Cumberbatch live and was NOT impressed! Globe Player has Michelle Terry (friend saw this and loved it) https://player.shakespearesglobe.com/productions/hamlet-2018/
I'm always recommending Issac Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare as a great companion to the complete works.
But for something small and fun, maybe just this Shakespeare Insult Mug.
I use the RSC edition and would highly recommend it. It includes every work, is based largely on the First Folio, and has a short essay before every play providing some useful insight into the themes, characters, and context.
Congratulations!
If you're serious about Shakespeare and have the cash, invest in these. They are the single best resource for understanding Shakespeare, as they define every word in proper context. They're invaluable to shakespearean scholarship and performance.
Break a leg!
Alesandra Ferri and Wayne Eagling in British Royal Ballet, Prokoviev's music with MacMillan's choreography
View after studying Shakespeare's text - perhaps your library can order for you
Worth an effort! Sublime, exquisite
or at Amazon for only $149 :(
Oh jeez, someone disagreeing with me on a basic fact, i.e. "...searches of extant printed texts from the period suggest 'see' was used about 90% of the time." How tiresome to have to deal with supercilious b.s. like this. So you're some kind of an authority on the "extant printed texts from the period"? Well, you're just wrong. Here's what the actual best Shakespearean expert of our time, Mark Ryland, says on this topic:
"In Shakespeare's day, people said they went 'to hear' the plays," he says. "No one wrote 'I saw Julius Caesar. Or I saw whatever.' They always say, 'I heard, or I'm going to hear this play, or I went to hear.' It was an aural tradition."
Don't believe me? Here's the link: https://www.npr.org/2013/11/10/243787060/heres-a-wild-idea-for-shakespeare-do-it-his-way
> Stealing in land, the precise ocupation of Falstaff
Stealing land (and the daughter of a King) is the occupation of Henry V, as we have just seen.
The attitudes of Pistol and Falstaff are not parallel. Pistol is a foil to Falstaff. Pistol is a coward. Falstaff is definitely not a coward, but he does save himself creatively.
Falstaff's courage is very convincingly argued in this essay.
As for "garment of nobility", Pistol will not be noble no matter how you dress him up. Falstaff is noble but he suffers from "consumption of the purse".
Mine has a red cloth cover and a plastic vinal cover over that. It was published by the Penguin Group. 2002
This is the one:
It sounds like you might be referencing Shadowplay, the book that posited that Shakespeare was a secret Catholic spy hiding codes in his plays?
Though that version is very well known, not many people realize that it was originally written for, and recorded by, Bryan Ferry.
EDIT : Found a link to the story, and also to Bryan Ferry's version.
I see where you're coming from, but IMHO what looks stupid to us today, in a few centuries time, will become accepted as the evolution of the language. Is is stupid to say "apron" because so many imbeciles were mispronouncing/misunderstanding "a napron"?
Garber’s Shakespeare After All has already been suggested as a good play-by-play analysis, so I’ll offer another: Tony Tanner’s <u>Prefaces to Shakespeare</u>. It’s well-written and conversational. His admiration of the plays really shines through. I also appreciate his close readings of passages, focusing on lexical analysis.
It is my second favorite complete Shakespeare next to Penguin. It comprises all of Shakespeare's works including the sonnets and poems. The notes are thorough and scholarly with all rare words defined and annotated. The book is very well made and the edition I have includes a slip box (not sure what they call it, but it is a 5-sided box the book slides into.
This is the edition I have and you can see the box I mentioned. Here's the description:
The Norton Shakespeare has long been acclaimed worldwide for its vibrant introductions, first among them Stephen Greenblatt's General Introduction, a richly textured portrait of Shakespeare's work and world. This Third Edition introduces a meticulously edited new text created by an expert international team of textual editors, a new introduction to the theater of Shakespeare's time, new performance notes, and hundreds of fine-tuned glosses that aid readers' understanding of the plays and poems. More than 170 Elizabethan and Jacobean illustrations round out this handsome volume, which is indispensable to all who love Shakespeare.
171 illustrations; 4 maps
https://www.amazon.com/Norton-Shakespeare-Third-Stephen-Greenblatt/dp/0393249832
LibriVox has public domain audio recordings of lots of stuff, including many of Shakespeare's plays and sonnets. This is all volunteer, not necessarily professional actors.
Here's Julius Caesar, personal fave of mine:
https://librivox.org/julius-caesar-by-william-shakespeare/
Also, a pretty nifty interactive version of King Lear from the Stratford Festival:
https://www.stratfordfestival.ca/Learn/Teachers/TeachingResources/PerformancePlus/KingLear
Peter Saccio was a professor at Dartmouth, he recorded a couple series of audio lectures for The Teaching Company that cover ~65% of the plays.
That's where I would begin. He gives original, scholarly, in-depth, but always comprehensible analysis of the plays. That's a good place to start with your journey into criticism.
Don't know of any article that treats that question. But I wonder what you mean by "Shakespeare's text of the play." You might find the textual history of the play so complicated that it would license any director to do whatever she wants with the text of the play! The Arden I've linker here might be useful in that regard.
For the most thorough annotations, conjectures, readings, and possibilities, Stephen Booth's edition of the sonnets, Yale UP 1977. Here's a link to Amazon, which has the paperback for very cheap.
From https://www.amazon.com/New-Oxford-Shakespeare-Critical-Complete/dp/0199591156
"The Modern Critical Edition presents the plays and poetry in the order in which Shakespeare wrote them, ..."
I can't necessarily claim it's the best, but I enjoy my RSC Complete Works. It's divided up into Comedies, Histories, Tragedies, Poems, and Sonnets. It's based heavily off the First Folio, so there are a few more uncommon editing choices. There are also essays before each play that elaborate on the themes and complexities of the work, and very solid summaries/character info/etc. for the plays.
I think high school students can handle an Arden. I mean, the text of the play is the exact same as it is in a different publishing, it's just that Arden has loads of scholarly essays and footnotes -- someone can just skip reading those, and only read the footnotes they really need in order to understand what is going on.
I would have loved Arden in high school, instead of feeling hopelessly lost with whatever version we did read.
The Ardens also have beautiful covers and great binding, with tons of white space for notes. Really can't go wrong. Can get them used for cheap, especially the 2nd editions.
This "staged filming" at the Globe is the best Tempest probably ever done that stays true to the text:
https://www.amazon.com/Shakespeare-Tempest-Shakespeares-Globe-Screen/dp/B00KONUVUM
Best of luck in teaching this, however you do it!
Buy the Arden version of Hamlet. 3rd edition. Has a picture of a knight's helm on it.
Almost every single word or phrase you don't get will be spelled out for you in the footnotes that are at the bottom of the page (the definition Shakespeare had in mind).
There are also these things called "glosses" when it's a full statement being summarized, and not just a single word or phrase.
Helps a million times more than anything else, and gives you zero reason to waste time and money on things like No Fear Shakespeare which only hurt, not help. The footnotes in Arden make No Fear more or less obsolete.
After a while, you'll start to just get locked in and get almost everything and hardly need to look at the footnotes (but they are still fun, anyways).
But yeah, Arden. You definitely want Arden. I wouldn't leave home without it :-)
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1472518381/ref=ox_sc_act_title_13?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1
The most thorough commentary, together with facsimile of 1st edition plus 20th century normalized English version on facing pages. Stephen Booth's edition, https://smile.amazon.com/Shakespeares-Sonnets-Y-356-1-Jul-1977-Paperback/dp/B013J9R9UC/ref=tmm\_pap\_swatch\_0?\_encoding=UTF8&qid=1621266125&sr=8-5
There’s no correct way to enjoy Shakespeare :)
The way I like doing this is to first understand what the story is about. You can pull up a synopsis online, or read a condensed novel version of it. (Heck, there’s no harm in reading children’s books — it’ll help you absorb the skeleton of the story much quicker.) Then maybe you can watch a movie or a (filmed) stage play of what you’re reading. This fleshes out the characters, helps you understand them better and gives a face to them, and it can help you recognise quotes as you read the play.
If you’re reading a “name tragedy” like Macbeth, Hamlet, Othello etc, a thing I like doing is, before jumping in, I look at the main character(s) and have a think about their motivations and personality. Then as I read the text, you can pick up clues from their soliloquies and monologues which fit into how you understand this character. Mostly tragedies follow the trajectory of one character’s downfall, so understanding the character before going in could help you connect with the text a bit more.
But like I said, there’s no right or wrong way to enjoy Shakespeare. Heck, you could even abandon the text altogether and settle for a manga instead. As long as you’re enjoying what you do, it’s all good ^^
This one, Stewart playing Claudius and the Ghost? https://smile.amazon.com/Hamlet-BBC-Various/dp/B0038RSJ0U/ref=sr_1_11?crid=1IP0KRH93RCZL&dchild=1&keywords=hamlet+dvd&qid=1609556328&sprefix=hamlet%2Caps%2C183&sr=8-11
I was totally thinking Lady M too! I'll let you know if any particular concepts come to mind regarding her or another character. This piece is going top and center on my Christmas list for sure-- I'd gladly cover a wall in Shakespearean heroines in this style.
Oh just had a couple of other thoughts before hitting post. Midsummer would have mass appeal and a ton of floral inspiration if you want to continue that concept. Also as an herbalist, gardener, and Shakespeare enthusiast, I literally open this book every day. You might find some inspiration in it too?
Thanks for creating such a beautiful piece and sharing it with the world. ❤️
If you have access to Amazon Prime and at least the free trial to the Broadway HD option, I recommend this one:
<code>https://www.amazon.com/Othello-Willard-White/dp/B075DG8QFF</code>
The Great William: Writers Reading Shakespeare
Haven’t read much of it but I think it’s exactly what you’re asking for.
https://www.amazon.com/Great-William-Writers-Reading-Shakespeare/dp/022636755X
"Shakespeare by Stages" is a great book to give you some historical background on what Shakespeare's theater was like. Its a more academic rather than pleasure read but it helps give you a broader perspective on what's happening in the plays.
https://www.amazon.com/Shakespeare-Stages-Introduction-Arthur-Kinney/dp/0631224696
No worries, I understood. I was just clarifying what I meant.
Re: translation of Lope de Vega’s plays, I found this on Amazon:
I think I’d rather start with his novel La Arcadia, but I haven’t found a translation yet, so I’ll probably buy the kindle edition of the 3 plays.
They really are amazing. Howard Furness was a scholar at the University of Pennsylvania in the 1880’s. He hit upon the idea of publishing the plays individually, starting with either the Quarto(where there was one) or the Folio(usually),and then collating all of the comments and emendations that editors from Rowe(1709- the first editor after the F1(1623), F2(1632), F3(1664), and F4(1685) through 1873, when his Macbeth Variorum was published. Over the next decade or so, he managed to complete 15 plays before his death in 1912. His son Howard , Jr. took up the work and completed another dozen or so, before he died and now the Modern Language Association has taken up the work (revised editions now take years to complete a single play, done by an army of editors, which only solidifies in my mind the incredible accomplishment of Furness’ work.
Paperback editions of the Furness were published in the 1960’s and used to be available on Amazon or eBay for under $10 a book; alas, I just checked and they seem to now be in the $40 range (too steep if you ask me). If you want to get a taste, just go to archive.org and search ‘Furness. Variorum’. The Hamlet spans two volumes- vol 2 is all notes!!
Actually- I see there’s a hardcopy 1903 original of the Macbeth for $18 on Amazon- https://smile.amazon.com/Macbeth-New-Variorum-Shakespeare-William/dp/B002JPGJKY/ref=mp_s_a_1_5?dchild=1&keywords=furness+shakespeare&qid=1591793719&sr=8-5
Scoop it up and have fun!
You can watch it for free if you start a trial here and then cancel (included with BroadwayHD on Amazon for $8.99/month after trial):
I just remark that the physical paperback editions of the Folger Library have difficult words explained on the opposite page. It is not hard to go along smoothly that way; it's right in front of you. It's not like switching screens on a device.
You seem to have the right attitude, that this is good stuff and deserves the effort needed to get a high-level experience.
Patience, patience. This is a life-long love affair.
Thank you.
Unfortunately, no I don't have any specific Macbeth annotations in mind yet. I remember tons of cool stuff in Bradley. If you have any interesting ones for Macbeth, feel free to sign up and add them to anno.wiki!
Also, if by which edition am I reading you mean that old annotated copy? I'm sorry, I lost it several years ago and don't remember any of the details about it. It was an old copy, from the 1970's or 1980's, and I've tried searching Amazon with no luck. I might be able to find it if I check the library of congress or something, but I doubt it if they don't have pictures of the texts, because I wouldn't recognize it by editor/title or any other details besides the nature of the cover (red and white and a strange square shape).
For the record, if you have never checked out Bradley's Shakespearean Tragedy I highly recommend it: here it is on Amazon and here it is for free on Gutenberg.
It's old, but it's considered one of the classics of Shakespeare interpretation. Reading it allows you to start to look into Shakespeare a little deeper, I think.
Here's what I suggest. Read this version of the Complete Works. What really throws you off and confuses you is the use of anachronistic words or words whose meaning has changed over time. Every time one of these words appears, there's a footnote explaining what the word meant at the time (usually a one word synonym). With that, you should be able to easily understand any sentence. Remember, it's made for the stage - you're not alone in getting confused with the reading. I say tough it out - it's completely worth it.
Try this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BO4GSA2/ref=oh_aui_d_detailpage_o02_?ie=UTF8&psc=1
There's a footnote for every anachronistic word supplying the modern meaning. That's more than half the battle (being able to understand a sentence in plain English). Don't hesitate to consult "No Fear Shakespeare" for scene analysis and modern translations. Remember that it's written for the stage - it's hard to understand everything you're reading as it's happening. Consult books like "Shakespeare After All" for an analysis of the play after you've read it.
I know that this has been answered but here's a link to purchase it. Pelican editions are pretty excellent for a first or second reading of the play.
Interestingly, a few years back an author, thinking about the same unfulfilled prophecy re: Fleance actually wrote a sequel - it's....ok. Got some interesting points and ideas but also is a bit funky cause he's trying to close off a bunch of "loose ends"
https://www.amazon.com/Tragedy-Macbeth-Part-II-Banquo/dp/1605980110
It isn't OP, but The Eloquent Shakespeare by Gary Logan is the authority for Standard American Stage Dialect for the pronunciation of all of Shakespeare's words.
The Eloquent Shakespeare: A Pronouncing Dictionary for the Complete Dramatic Works with Notes to Untie the Modern Tongue https://www.amazon.com/dp/022600631X/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_Zv.WzbE34EY5C
You should purchase The Riverside Shakespeare, which is a large book filled with the complete collection of Shakespeare's plays and poems from the best folios. It also has accompanying literature for each play and poem. My copy is very precious to me so if you love studying Shakespeare, I would highly recommend purchasing this collection in particular.
We were required to read Julius Caesar in 9th grade. It was in a textbook full of other stories and plays. Not sure what edition it was based off of as it was 17 years ago. The experience made me hate Shakespeare because the teacher said "read this, test on Monday". It wasn't until undergrad that I found appreciation for the works under my Honors Advisor and even more appreciation for the works when I went on to get a graduate degree in Shakespeare and Early Modern Performance.
My thesis advisor wrote a great book called ShakesFear and How to Cure It! that I think every teacher should have on the shelf.
Don't teach with NoFear Shakespeare or other "translated" editions. Students will learn more if they are required to translate on their own short passages using the OED.
Edit: I think R&J, MND, and JC are used the most because they are easily recognizable and, in the case of R&J and MND, comedies are maybe more entertaining to younger minds. I think Twelfth Night or Comedy of Errors are better comedies to use. Most administrators don't have experience with Shakespeare and just follow by rote. It is strange that R&J is taught in HS being as it is arguably the bawdiest play in the canon and textbook versions make a lot of edits to curtail to school standards.
After searching for what you're looking for for years, I finally came across this edition which has full annotations.
Sure! There are lots of "complete works" editions out there, including ones with introductions and notes for every play (though they won't be small if those add-ons are included). Try the RSC Complete Works or Bevington's Complete Works. Neither one is small or cheap, but if you want more than just the text, they're a real help.
So here's the deal. There aren't many spoilers in shakespeare that haven't been spoiled yet. So What I did was I read the synopsis by Azimov first, then I read the play. I never ever ever would have completed or understood Antony and Cleopatra without it (it's a political play).
Here's a link. It's certainly alot less than I paid for it in 1993.
I loved those! They were my introduction to Shakespeare when I was little. The texts aren't always incredibly well-cut, but they retained enough to make the stories clear and get my eight year old self hooked on the language, and the casts contain some top actors.
Oooh, look, the DVD set is on Amazon! (British Amazon, anyway. If you're not in the UK and have trouble getting hold of them where you are, drop me a line and I'll do what I can to help get them to you.)
Here's the link to the book on which it is based.
They lost me at: "...Rosaline's sister Livia discovers that Paris is still alive..."
Sure, why not. You could make up Livia as a new character, but you couldn't make up a brother for Paris or something, you had to go with the not-quite-dead angle.
When I was traveling, I listened to cassettes by Caedmon Audio. They do full text recordings, and the casting... my god, every great Shakespearean actor from the 1940 to about 1985.
I found their Henry V - Ian Holm, John Gielgud and Ian McKellen. Can't ask for better than that.
They're apparently on CD, which is pretty old technology, but I don't see why they couldn't be put on an iPod or your phone.
These actors are the pros from Dover when it comes to Shakespeare. Their version of Hamlet stars Sir John Gielgud as Hamlet (audio only means the star actor doesn't have to be young). This is a man who has an exquisite understanding of Shakespeare - just listening to him is educational.
I was on the road a lot - essentially gave up music to listen to these Brits show how it's done. Drop-mike good.
Edit Seems like Amazon only has an audio cassette tape of Henry V. Wikipedia gives this website, Harper Collins Publishers as the official Caedmon website. I can't find Caedmon - might be buried in the website, which (naturally) has no internal search function. Might be worth a phone call.
Thanks for clarifying. I just finished Shakespeare's Figures of Speech and am still trying to sort out the different terms.
It's a really helpful read: http://www.amazon.com/Shakespeares-Figures-Speech-Readers-Guide/dp/1440151911
For legal stuff on this period, a great reference work is Shakespeare's legal language: A dictionary by B. J. and Mary Sokol. They've also written Shakespeare, law, and marriage which is somewhat closer to your topic.
It's unrealistic to want something that small but you can have:
or
It depends on what you mean by worth reading. From a scholarship point of view yes, as far as story goes I guess that depends on you since it is a bit messy. If you're interested in knowing a little bit more about the Thomas More manuscript you should check out John Jowett's Shakespeare and Text
To my mind the Sonnets are Shakespeare's greatest poetry, and as great a poet as he is generally, I think his sonnets are under appreciated. Their bottom has never been plumbed; it takes years to appreciate just how good they are (for one thing you need to read a lot of other poetry).
Buy a CD and listen to them in the car whenever you drive. Even with not paying close attention to them, they will sift into your subconscious. There's no wrong way to read them as long as you're reading them. This is my favorite recording of the Sonnets, and this is what I consider to be the best collection of criticism. I have several editions, but I like the Duncan-Jones Arden edition the best.
If you are really reading it on a Kindle, any complete works will be a navigation nightmare and likely difficult to read. I checked out the Oxford, which is at least reasonably authoritative and unlikely to contain errors found in other editions. There is a huge introductory section before the plays start so you will need to get to the table of contents and click on the right one to jump, and it is more than $15. There are some pretty excellent apps for iPad if you are using that.
Otherwise, I guess Oxford is ok but unless you are looking for a deal, if you don't want paper I think you would be better off getting individual plays for Kindle. You can find at least some editions of individual plays from the Folger Library on Kindle, for example, and those are excellent, although they will run you $5 - $6 each. Some Arden editions are available for Kindle, too, and those are even better, but more expensive.
If you don't need the accompanying essays, etc., and just want the play in a readable format from people who know what they are doing, there are some editions that look pretty good, like this one for Macbeth for only $0.99.