This is undoubtedly the greatest love story ever written, spawning a host of imitators on stage and screen, including Leonard Bernstein's smash musical West Side Story, Franco Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet filmed in 1968, and Baz Luhrmann's postmodern film version Romeo + Juliet. The tragic feud between "Two households, both alike in dignity/In fair Verona", the Montagues and Capulets, which ultimately kills the two young "star-crossed lovers" and their "death-marked love" creates issues which have fascinated subsequent generations. The play deals with issues of intergenerational and familial conflict, as well as the power of language and the compelling relationship between sex and death, all of which makes it an incredibly modern play. It is also an early example of Shakespeare fusing poetry with dramatic action, as he moves from Romeo's lyrical account of Juliet--"she doth teach the torches to burn bright!" to the bustle and action of a 16th-century household (the play contains more scenes of ordinary working people than any of Shakespeare's other works). It also represents an experimental attempt to fuse comedy with tragedy. Up to the third act, the play proceeds along the lines of a classic romantic comedy. The turning point comes with the death of one of Shakespeare's finest early dramatic creations--Romeo's sexually ambivalent friend Mercutio, whose "plague o' both your houses" begins the play's descent into tragedy, "For never was a story of more woe/Than this of Juliet and her Romeo". --Jerry Brotton

After centuries of vilification and neglect by both scholars and actors, Titus Andronicus has at last come to be recognized as one of Shakespeare's early masterpieces. In this powerful and ground-breaking edition, Bate offers a complete and radical reappraisal of Shakespeare's bloodiest tragedy, seeing it as one of the dramatist's most inventive plays, a complex and self-conscious improvisation upon classical sources. Bate's introduction does full justice to the play's artfulness and sophistication, puts forward new arguments regarding the play's date, sources and early stage history, and devotes extended discussion to great modern productions such as those of Peter Brook and Deborah Warner.In an age in which dramatic representation of violence has become an issue of enormous controversy, Titus Andronicus is the essential play; Bate's seminal edition indicates just how far, with this early work, the young Shakespeare has already travelled towards the masterpiece of his maturity, King Lear.'a great edition of a great play'Julie Taymor, Director TITUS, 20th Century Fox, 1999"Bate makes a really positive virtue of his treatment of the play in performance...putting a vigorous account of Titus on stage at very stage-centre in his Introduction. Using this section as a means for raising fundamental questions as to the play's style, coherence, and meaning, Bate achieves a remarkable fusion between performance history and criticism." John Jowett, Shakespeare Survey'impressive and exciting'Barry Gaines, University of New Mexico, Shakespeare Quarterly'This is an outstanding edition of Titus, especially for its treatment of textual questions and of recent performance history. It supersedes all previous editions'Dr P Hartle, St Catherines College, Cambridge

讲述了由“魔汁”引起的冲突及冲突被解决、有情人终成眷属的故事。有两个男青年拉山德（Lysander）、狄米特律斯（Demetrius）同时爱上了女青年郝米娅（Hermia），而郝米娅恋着拉山德，她的好友海丽娜（Helena）又恋着狄米特律斯。郝米娅为了反对包办婚姻和情人私奔，来到约定好的森林里。海丽娜将这一消息告诉了狄米特律斯，二人也跟着赶到了森林里。这个森林里本来住着仙王、仙后和侍奉他们的小仙、精灵，此时仙王、仙后正因为一个“换儿”（传说中仙人常于夜间将人家美丽的小儿窃去充做侍童）而不和。仙王为了让仙后做出让步，便派小精灵迫克（Puck）去取来魔汁（西方一朵纯洁的白色小花因为误中了丘比特的爱情之箭，受创伤后而流出的汁液）以戏弄仙后。这种魔汁有这样的魔力：如果它滴在睡者的人的眼皮上，无论男女，醒来一眼看见的生物，就都会发疯似的爱上它。

Comprising the complete works of William Shakespeare, based on the Oxford edition, this book has been edited and annotated to provide a single-column text. Each play has an introduction aimed at encouraging a fresh approach to the work. In the general introduction, the editor draws a picture of everyday life in Elizabethan England: the culture, the people, commerce, politics and religion. He describes Shakespeare's family life and his professional career as a working man of the theatre. He also discusses the printing and publishing of the plays, and recent developments in textual scholarship. Lastly, he considers questions affecting Shakespeare criticism. An essay by Andrew Gurr (University of Reading), on the staging of Shakespeare's plays explains, for example, how the plays were performed at the "Globe" theatre. An accompanying CD-ROM, "The Norton Shakespeare Workshop" is also available.

为什么称莎士比亚是思想家？ 作为思想家的莎士比亚究竟有何过人之处？ 莎士比亚的戏剧作品如何印证了维特根斯坦的哲学、热力学的第二定律、物理学的熵变理论和当代数学发展的最新成果？ 本书通过对多部莎剧的精妙解读，依次从当代诗学、伦理学、政治学、目的论和社会学等多个角度，揭示出莎士比亚在四百多年前的诸多创见与当代各学科前沿理论的密切联系，为我们展示了作为思想家的莎士比亚所取得的独特成就。

Book Description FROM THE WORLD FAMOUS ROYAL SHAKESPEARE COMPANY, THE FIRST AUTHORITATIVE, MODERNIZED, AND CORRECTED EDITION OF SHAKESPEARE’S FIRST FOLIO IN THREE CENTURIES. Skillfully assembled by Shakespeare’s fellow actors in 1623, the First Folio was the original Complete Works. It is arguably the most important literary work in the English language. But starting with Nicholas Rowe in 1709 and continuing to the present day, Shakespeare editors have mixed Folio and Quarto texts, gradually corrupting the original Complete Works with errors and conflated textual variations. Now Jonathan Bate and Eric Rasmussen, two of today’s most accomplished Shakespearean scholars, have edited the First Folio as a complete book, resulting in a definitive Complete Works for the twenty-first century. Combining innovative scholarship with brilliant commentary and textual analysis that emphasizes performance history and values, this landmark edition will be indispensable to students, theater professionals, and general readers alike. For more information on this Modern Library edition, visit www.therscshakespeare.com Book Dimension length: (cm)24.1 　　　 　　　　　 　　　　　 width:(cm)18.6