Much ado about nothing / edited by F.H. Mares.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616.

Contributor:

Mares, F. H. (Francis Hugh)

Horace Howard Furness Memorial Library (University of Pennsylvania)

Series:

New Cambridge Shakespeare.

The new Cambridge Shakespeare

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616. Much ado about nothing--Dramatic production.

Shakespeare, William.

Physical Description:

xiv, 174 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm.

Edition:

Updated edition.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2003.

Summary:

Much Ado has always been popular on the stage. This edition pays especial attention to the history and range of theatrical interpretation, in which the most famous actors, from the time of Garrick to the present, have appeared as the sparring lovers Benedick and Beatrice. A full commentary includes annotation of the many sexual jokes in the play that have been obscured by the complexity of Elizabethan language. For this updated edition Angela Stock has added a new section to the Introduction in which she reviews the romantic and the darker, more cynical aspects of the play in the light of late twentieth-century stage, film and critical interpretations. She also tackles the interesting question of Beatrice's proper age and the critical fortunes of Hero and Claudio in terms of the play's interest in sexuality and misogyny, eavesdropping and deception.

Contents:

The date of the play 7

Stage history 10

The criticism of the play 29

A note on the text 41

Postscript, March 1987 45

Recent stage, film and critical interpretations, by Angela Stock 48

The Play 65

Supplementary notes 158

Textual analysis 160

1 The time-scheme of Much Ado About Nothing 166

2 Lewis Carroll's letter to Ellen Terry 169

3 Benedick's song, 5.2.18-22 171.

Notes:

Previous ed.: 1999.

Includes bibliographical references (page 174).

ISBN:

0521825431

0521532507

OCLC:

51667994