Play Reviews: Hamlet, Othello, Romeo and Juliet, King Lear, Macbeth, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, Much Ado about Nothing, Hamlet, the Merchant of Venice, Measure for Measure, a Midsummer Night's Dream, a Midsummer Night's Dream, Othello, a Midsummer Night's Dream, Macbeth, Timon of Athens, Antoine et Cléopâtre, Vice(s), Versa, c'est-à-dire the Changeling, Les Joyeuses Commères de Windsor, Othello, La Nuit des Reines ou comment Henri III a viré sa cuti, Otello, Richard II, the Tempest, Enrico V (Henry V)

2004 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-76
Author(s):  
Greg Walker ◽  
David Hartwig ◽  
Will Sharpe ◽  
Peter J. Smith ◽  
David Hartwig ◽  
...  
2004 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 158-161
Author(s):  
Michael Flachmann

In their “Editors' Preface” to the Cambridge University Press Shakespeare in Production series, J. S. Bratton and Julie Hankey proudly describe the “comprehensive dossier of materials,” including “eye-witness accounts, contemporary criticism, promptbook marginalia, stage business, cuts, additions and rewritings,” that make up the heart of this brilliant and exceptionally useful collection of Shakespeare editions. Conceived by Jeremy Treglown and first published by Junction Books, the series was later printed by Bristol Classical Press as Plays in Performance, though none of the original four titles remains in print. Already published in the descendant Cambridge Shakespeare in Production series are nine plays—A Midsummer Night's Dream, Much Ado about Nothing, Antony and Cleopatra, Hamlet, The Tempest, King Henry V, Romeo and Juliet, The Taming of the Shrew, and The Merchant of Venice—with Macbeth, Twelfth Night, Troilus and Cressida, Othello, and As You Like It forthcoming.


Tempo ◽  
1969 ◽  
pp. 6-12
Author(s):  
Stephen Walsh

Although Shakespeare has in the past been freely plundered for musical settings of every kind—from song to opera—it still seems a fair generalisation to say that his best work does not lend itself to this kind of treatment. Perhaps the most successful of all Shakespeare operas in English is Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream, which follows closely the text of one of the less substantial comedies. Of The Tempest, Much Ado About Nothing, The Merchant of Venice, no satisfactory opera has apparently been made (though Berlioz's Béatrice et Bénédict contains charming music), and for much the same reason—namely Shakespeare's unrivalled genius for linguistic imagery—the great tragedies have resisted direct musical setting, Boito's Otello and Piave's Macbeth being, of course, free derivatives, not translations. Only in our own century has it become normal to set Shakespeare's tragedies in the original text, translated or otherwise.


Babel ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adolfo Luis Soto Vázquez

The purpose of this paper is to delve into the most representative Spanish versions of Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Merchant of Venice, Much Ado About Nothing and The Merry Wives of Windsor in order to analyse and evaluate the way malapropisms are rendered and whether the Spanish equivalents or the other solutions successfully or unsuccessfully convey their original function embedded in the English discourse. Since the main function of the malapropism is to generate hilarity in the audience or readers, in Spanish, as a romance language, it is very easy to find a great deal of equivalent malapropisms reflecting the comic effect of the original text, thus the lack of this literary device in the Spanish versions is unforgivable


2020 ◽  
Vol 21 (36) ◽  
pp. 85-97
Author(s):  
Andoni Cossio ◽  
Martin Simonson

This paper analyses from an ecocritical standpoint the role of trees, woods and forests and their symbolism in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Macbeth, The Merchant of Venice, The Merry Wives of Windsor, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Richard II and The Tempest. The analysis begins with an outline of the representation of trees on stage to continue with a ‘close reading’ of the mentioned plays, clearly distinguishing individual trees from woods and forests. Individual types of trees may represent death, sadness, sorcery and premonitions, or serve as meeting places, while forests and woods are frequently portrayed as settings which create an atmosphere of confusion, false appearances, danger and magic. This reflects a long-standing historical connection between trees and forests and the supernatural in literature and culture. However, while individual trees largely reflect traditional symbology, conventional interpretations are often subverted in Shakespeare’s treatment of forests and woods. From all this we may infer that Shakespeare was not only familiar with the traditions associated to individual tree species and forests in general, but also that he made conscious and active use of these in order to enhance the meaning of an action, reinforce character traits, further the plot and create a specific atmosphere. More subtly, the collective arboreal environments can also be interpreted as spaces in which superstitions and older societal models are questioned in favour of a more rational and reasonable understanding of the world.


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