William Shakespeare: A Documentary Life

This beautiful new edition of Shakespeares complete works--"The Oxford Shakespeare"--is the product of eight years of full-time research by a team of British and American scholars and represents the most thorough examination ever undertaken of the nature and authority of the early documents. The edition abounds in unique features. It is the first volume to provide edited texts of King Lear both as Shakespeare originally wrote it and as it was revised for performance somes years later. Other plays such as Hamlet Othello and Troilus and Cressida are based on what recent research identifies as Shakespeares revised text. Major textual alternatives--first versions of revised passages omitted lines--are printed as additional passages. All stage directions have been reconsidered in light of original staging and many new directions for essential action have been added. Specially designed brackets idenify conjectural stage direction and speech prefixes. In most respects the text is identical to that of the "old-spelling" edition but spelling and punctuation have been freshly modernized. There is a General Introduction along with brief factual introductions to each work. Elegantly (and Readably) designed this book will undoubtedly become a treasure for lovers of Shakespeare throughout the English-speaking world. About the Editors: Stanley Wells Head of the Shakespeare Department at OUP-UK is a Fellow at Balliol College Oxford. He is the author of many books and articles on Shakespeare. Gary Taylor who holds degrees from the Universities of Kansas and Cambridge is the author of several books and articles on Shakespeare including To Analyze Delight: A Hedonist Criticism of Shakespeare.