William Shakespeare and Others: Collaborative Plays: 45 (The RSC Shakespeare) - Hardcover

Eric Rasmussen; Jonathan Bate

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1137271442 ISBN 13: 9781137271440

Publisher: Red Globe Press, 2013

Synopsis

Among the plays staged at the Globe and published in Shakespeare's lifetime were The London Prodigal by William Shakespeare, A Yorkshire Tragedy written by W. Shakespeare and Thomas Lord Cromwell written by W.S

Could Shakespeare really have written these plays? Why were they excluded from the First Folio of his collected works? As a companion to their award-winning The RSC Shakespeare: Complete Works, renowned scholars Jonathan Bate and Eric Rasmussen, supported by a dynamic team of co-editors, now present William Shakespeare and Others: Collaborative Plays.

This is the first edition for over a hundred years of the fascinatingly varied body of plays that has become known as 'The Shakespeare Apocrypha'. Among the highlights are the whole text of Sir Thomas More, which includes the only scene from any play to survive in Shakespeare's own handwriting; the history play Edward III, including a superb seduction scene by Shakespeare; and the domestic murder tragedy Arden of Faversham, in which Shakespeare's hand has been detected by recent computer-assisted analysis. This is also the first ever Shakespeare edition to include the 1602 edition of Thomas Kyd's pioneering The Spanish Tragedy, with 'additions' that the latest research attributes to Shakespeare. A magisterial essay by Will Sharpe provides a comprehensive account of the Authorship and Attribution of each play.

William Shakespeare and Others: Collaborative Plays has all the features of the bestselling RSC Shakespeare series: inimitable introductions by Jonathan Bate, rigorous textual editing led by Eric Rasmussen, key facts boxes with information on sources and the distribution of parts, on-page notes explaining difficult or obsolete vocabulary, and interviews with directors and actors who have staged the plays, including RSC Artistic Directors Terry Hands, Michael Boyd and Gregory Doran.

About this title

Review

The reputation of many of the plays in this volume has been tarnished somewhat by their apparent effrontery in presuming to crowd onto the Shakespeare band wagon. In fact they often work brilliantly on stage. As proved at the RSC, Arden of Faversham is a terrific murder thriller, Edward III and Thomas More, intriguing takes on history, while Mucedorus, one of the most popular plays in Shakespeare's day, has still to be proved in production. We know very little about how the stable of playwrights at the Rose, or at the Globe, collaborated. Did one writer do the plotting, another the dialogue? We'll probably never know – but this book provides a fascinating insight into some of the plays in which it has been claimed Shakespeare himself may have had a hand.' – Gregory Doran, RSC Artistic Director

'How we answer that most vexing of questions – 'What is Shakespearean?'―tells us as much about ourselves as it does about the author and his age. This outstanding and beautifully conceived edition, which explores ten plays long attributed to Shakespeare but currently excluded from the canon, allows us to revisit that question afresh and richly informed, and will prove invaluable for actors, playgoers, students, and scholars.' – James Shapiro, Professor of English at Columbia University, USA and author of 1599 and Contested Will

'Meet the 'other' Shakespeare: not Shakespeare the solitary writer, the 'lone genius', but Shakespeare the reviser, rewriter and collaborator. Shakespeare and Others reassesses what was once called the 'apocrypha', and provides, for the first time, fully up-to-date editions of the plays in which Shakespeare may plausibly have had a hand. Consisting of annotated, modern-spelling texts accompanied by interviews with theatrical practitioners, this unique collection will appeal equally to readers and performers. It is a must have book for lovers of Shakespeare on page and stage.' – Tiffany Stern, Professor of English at Oxford University, UK

'A rich collection of early modern plays that are entertaining, exciting and often simply superb.' – Peter Holland, University of Notre Dame, USA

'In evaluating candidates, Bate and Rasmussen tread the ground between Victorian inclusiveness and modernist scrupulousness ... helpful tables at the beginning of each play give readers the basis to decide authorship issues for themselves. Summing up: recommended' – CHOICE

'Bate and Rasmussen put the subject in a characteristically engaging and accessible way...the most important effect of this book may indeed be its encouragement of work on the non-Shakespearean drama' – TLS

'William Shakespeare and Others challenges readers to consider their own perception of what is and what is not Shakespeare against a background of varied authorship analyses ... The clearly printed texts invite the reader to engage in the debate at first hand.' – Thomas Merriam, Notes & Queries

'The ten plays collected in William Shakespeare & Others are worth serious attention ...it is difficult to imagine anyone seriously interested in Shakespeare who would not want to read these plays...Bate and Rasmussen deserve our gratitude for re-presenting these fascinating dramas so handsomely and conveniently for today's readership' – Standpoint

'The greatness of Shakespeare's art has misled many readers imagining that his genius was somehow beyond history. Among the virtues of William Shakespeare & Others is that it corrects that misapprehension. Shakespeare was firmly of his age in the way he wrote and worked...the evidence of collaboration demonstrates that the author was a jobbing playwright' – The Times

'a major edition of collaborative plays bearing the Bard's name.' – The Observer

Book Description

This is the first edition for over a hundred years of the body of plays known as 'The Shakespeare Apocrypha', a body of plays that Shakespeare is reputed to have had a significant hand in writing.

About this edition

• Publisher: Red Globe Press
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1137271442
• ISBN 13: 9781137271440
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 752