Macbeth (Shakespeare Series) - Softcover

MACK

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0867090219 ISBN 13: 9780867090215

Publisher: Boynton/Cook Publishers Inc US, 1990

Synopsis

The Boynton/Cook editions of four of Shakespeare's most popular plays have been reissued with attractive new cover designs and printed on more opaque, easy-to-read paper. This series is specifically designed for high school classes.

• Students will be able to see each play as a whole. In their introduction to each of the plays, editors Mack and Boynton suggest ways of approaching the text that allow the reader a broad range of imaginative involvement. Their observations are intended to help students read and experience the play, not to discourage them with critical jargon or peripheral historical information.
• Students will be reading the best text both in terms of visual excellence and quality of scholarship. They'll immediately appreciate the large page format and highly readable typography. Each volume is consistent with the most authoritative early edition of each play. The glosses are full and clear but don't belabor the obvious or clutter the text.
• Background information includes the editors' detailed analysis of the Elizabethan theatre and its relation to Shakespeare's dramaturgy, C. W. Hodges's drawing re-creating the original Globe Playhouse, a brief account of Shakespeare's life and a chronological listing of his works, and a bibliography, lists of videotapes (VHS), records, and tapes of the complete plays.
• Students will experience added critical and imaginative dimensions. An essay following each play suggests ways of approaching it as a live dramatic experience in the theatre of the mind. The concern is not how the play might be produced in a theatre, but rather how parts of it may be realized in the imagination through close attention to what the language is saying and suggesting.
• Students can get a deeper understanding of each scene through helpful, detailed questions included at the back of each volume. These questions encourage group discussion or written response. Also included are topics for longer papers.

About this title

Review

One of Shakespeare's greatest, but also bloodiest tragedies, was written around 1605 to 1606. Many have seen the story of Macbeth's murder and usurpation of the legitimate Scottish King Duncan as having obvious connection to contemporary issues regarding King James I (James VI of Scotland), and the Gunpowder Plot of 1605. King James was particularly fascinated with witchcraft, so the appearance of the witches chanting "Fair is foul, and foul is fair" at the opening of the play seemed particularly topical, as was Macbeth's betrayal of Banquo, from whom James claimed direct descent.

However, the play is clearly far more than a piece of royal entertainment. It is also a fast-moving and dramatically satisfying piece of theatre. Macbeth's existential struggle between loyalty to his King and his "Vaulting ambition" is fascinating to watch, as his is struggle with Lady Macbeth, and her own terrifying refusal of her maternal role. The play shows an intensification of Shakespeare's interest in mothers and their effect upon ruling masculinity, and also contains some of the most memorable speeches in the entire canon, including Macbeth's reflections that ultimately life "is a tale/Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,/Signifying nothing". --Jerry Brotton

Review

"The explosive and overwhelming effect of a truck bomb...this horrific, riveting "Macbeth" ought to be seen by as many people as possible." -- Terry Teachout, "The Wall Street Journal"

About this edition

• Publisher: Boynton/Cook Publishers Inc US
• Publication date: 1990
• ISBN 10: 0867090219
• ISBN 13: 9780867090215
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 152