The RSC Shakespeare: The Complete Works

SIR JONATHAN BATE is Professor of Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature, University of Warwick, UK. He has held visiting posts at Harvard, Yale and UCLA and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a Fellow of the British Academy, an Honorary Fellow of St Catherine's College, Cambridge, and a Governor and Board member of the Royal Shakespeare Company. A prominent critic, award-winning biographer and broadcaster, he is the author of several books on Shakespeare, including The Genius of Shakespeare (Picador), which was praised by Sir Peter Hall, founder of the RSC, as "the best modern book on Shakespeare." In June 2006 he was awarded a CBE by HM The Queen 'for services to Higher Education'. ERIC RASMUSSEN is Professor of English at the University of Nevada, USA. He is co-editor of the Norton Anthology of English Renaissance Drama and has edited volumes in both the Arden Shakespeare and Oxford World's Classics series. He is the General Textual Editor of the Internet Shakespeare Editions project - one of the most visited Shakespeare websites in the world. For over nine years he has written the annual review of editions and textual studies for the Shakespeare Survey.

Preface; J.Bate.- General Introduction; J.Bate.- A User's Guide.- Preliminary pages of the First Folio.- Foreword; M.Boyd, Artistic Director, Royal Shakespeare Company.- WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE: COMPLETE WORKS.- For each play.- Individual introduction by Jonathan Bate.- On-page footnote gloss which explains unfamiliar or obsolete words and classical, biblical or contemporary references where WS assumes audience knowledge.- Appendices of any significant passages that are not in First Folio.- 'Key Facts' box with: plot summary, major roles, date, linguistic medium, sources, textual notes.- COMEDIES.- The Tempest.- The Two Gentlemen of Verona.- The Merry Wives of Windsor.- Measure for Measure.- The Comedy of Errors.- Much Ado about Nothing.- Love's Labour's Lost.- A Midsummer Night's Dream.- The Merchant of Venice.- As You Like It.- The Taming of the Shrew.- All's Well that Ends Well.- Twelfth Night, or What You Will.- The Winter's Tale.- HISTORIES.- The Life and Death of King John.- The Life and Death of King Richard the Second.- The First Part of Henry the Fourth, with the Life and Death of Henry surnamed Hotspur.- The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, containing his Death and the Coronation of King Henry the Fifth.- The Life of Henry the Fifth.- The First Part of Henry the Sixth.- The Second Part of Henry the Sixth, with the Death of the Good Duke Humphrey.- The Third Part of Henry the Sixth, with the Death of the Duke of York.- The Tragedy of Richard the Third, with the Landing of Earl Richmond and the Battle at Bosworth Field.- The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eighth.- TRAGEDIES.- The Tragedy of Troilus and Cressida.- The Tragedy of Coriolanus.- The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus.- The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet.- The Life of Timon of Athens.- The Tragedy of Julius Caesar.- The Tragedy of Macbeth.- The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark.- The Tragedy of King Lear.- The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice.- The Tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra.- The Tragedy of Cymbeline.- PLAYS NOT IN THE FIRST FOLIO.- Pericles, Prince of Tyre, by William Shakespeare and George Wilkins.- The Two Noble Kinsmen, by William Shakespeare and John Fletcher.- POEMS AND SONNETS.- Venus and Adonis.- The Rape of Lucrece.- 'Let the bird of loudest lay' (also known as 'The Phoenix and Turtle').- 'To the Queen'.- Shakespeare's Sonnets.- A Scene from Sir Thomas More.- (Introduction, transcription and modernized text by Eric Rasmussen).- CHARTS.- Shakespeare's Works: A Conjectural Chronology.- Kings and Queens of England: from the History Plays to Shakespeare's Lifetime.- The Houses of Lancaster and York: A Genealogy.- The history behind the histories: a chronology.- The history behind the tragedies: a chronology.- Alphabetical Index of Plays and Poems