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The Tragedy of Macbeth, commonly just Macbeth, is a play by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607. The earliest account of a performance of what was likely Shakespeare's play is April 1611, when Simon Forman recorded seeing such a play at the Globe Theatre. It was first published in the Folio of 1623, possibly from a prompt book for a specific performance. Shakespeare's sources for the tragedy are the accounts of Macbeth, Macduff, and Duncan in Holinshed's Chronicles (1587), a history of England, Scotland and Ireland familiar to Shakespeare and his contemporaries. In the back-stage world of theatre, some believe the play is cursed and will not mention its name aloud, referring to it instead as The Scottish play. Over the centuries, the play has attracted some of the greatest actors in the roles of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. The play has been adapted to film, television, opera, novels, comic books, and other media. ... Read more

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Three hardcover volumes. x, 849 pages; 967 pages; 803 pages. Original brown cloth bindings with gold lettering. "William Shakespeare's plays have the reputation of being among the greatest in the English language and in Western literature. Traditionally divided into the genres of tragedy, history, and comedy, they have been translated into every major living language, in addition to being continually performed all around the world. Among the most famous and critically acclaimed of Shakespeare's plays are Romeo and Juliet, King Lear, Macbeth, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Taming of the Shrew, Hamlet, Julius Caesar, Othello, The Tempest, Twelfth Night, The Merchant of Venice and Richard III. Many of his plays appeared in print as a series of quartos, but approximately half of them remained unpublished until 1623, when the posthumous First Folio was published. The traditional division of his plays into tragedies, comedies, and histories follows the categories used in the First Folio. However, modern criticism has labelled some of these plays 'problem plays' which elude easy categorization, or perhaps purposefully break generic conventions, and has introduced the term romances for what scholars believe to be his later comedies." -- Wikipedia ... Read more

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The Shakespearean Stage is the only authoritative book that describes all the main features of the original staging of Shakespearean drama in one volume: the acting companies and their acting styles, the playhouses, the staging and the audiences. For twenty years it has been hailed as not only the most reliable but the liveliest and most entertaining overview of Shakespearean theater available to students.For this third edition Professor Gurr has substantially revised the book, bringing it right up to date and incorporating many new discoveries, including those of the archaeologists at the sites of the Rose and Globe theaters. The invaluable appendix, which lists all the plays performed at a particular playhouse, the playing company and date of performance, has also been revised and rearranged. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Well done, but. . .
This is a thoroughly researched piece of work by Gurr, but it's not for the casual or general reader, methinks.It is detailed, readable, and. . . pedantic.Only the specialist would be interested in every bit of this book, but if one has selected interests, he will get probably the best information here.My interests were in the staging of the plays, the architecture of the amphitheaters and halls, and the chronological evolution of the playhouses and methods of staging.I'm not so interested in which players and playwrights performed and wrote for which companies.This part of the book I found fairly tedious.

The illustrations are mostly familiar ones (if you've done much reading on the subject), with some truly interesting photos and building footprint sketches of the latest "digs" in London.There is a note in this edition (the third) that the list of plays, playhouses, authors, and dates for the period (in the appendix) have been revised from the format of the previous edition and placed in alphabetical order of the play titles.This must suit the needs of some readers, but it frustrated me because I most wanted a chronological listing.Ah, well.

The author makes very clear at the beginning what period he means by "Shakespearean":latter half of Elizabeth's reign (1570s to 1603); whole of the reign of James I (1603-1625) and the rule of Charles I (1625 up until he lost control of things in 1642).He gives cogent reasons for this particular nomenclature.

An emphasis on fact
This is simply a definitive book. Rich in scholarship it is free from much of the dogma, masquerading as fact, that attaches itself to theatrical "scholarship"of this period. Gurr has an astonsihing array of knowledge that encompases all the major authors, players, companies and audiences of this fascinating era. Quite simply he makes it come alive. He also answers so many of the questions that puzzle the reader about this time. Of particular interest is his attempt to investigate the acting "style" in the playhouse and the growing schism between the "personative" school of acting and the "rhetoriticians". Please buy, it will reward your purchase many times over!

The best survey of its kind
It is very easy, and very pleasant, to write in praise of this book, for it is hard to envisage that the task accomplished by Gurr - an absolute expert in the area under discussion - could have been carried out yet better. For several years now, this guide has very justifiably been accepted as the best of its kind, and it is an essential possession for all of us who want, within one handy volume, a comprehensive account of what the theatres of Shakespeare's time were like, and what is likely to have happened within them. The author's detailed, well-informed and specific work is based not only on his own formidable research into the matters at issue, but also on close acquaintance with what others have done. Everything is presented with impeccable, sensible and perceptive judgement. The book can certainly be read through with benefit and enjoyment, but repays frequent visiting whenever one wants to consult a particular chapter or to find out more about a specific issue or fact (there is a very good index to help one in this). All in all, therefore, this book is not only very informative to read, but surpasses a great many books on Shakespeare and his time by being also an excellent reference tool for frequent use. Unhesitatingly recommended. - Joost Daalder, Professor of English, Flinders University, South Australia

A learned and accessible background guide
This book gives an engaging breakdown of how Shakespearean plays were performed in early modern London. Gurr gives an idea of the range of players' companies, playhouses, and different playing practices, as well asa sense of how the companies and their plays changed throughout the period.I refer to this book all the time and plan to order it for my students toread as a companion to Shakespeare's plays. ... Read more

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For almost forty years The Shakespearean Stage has been considered the liveliest, most reliable and most entertaining overview of Shakespearean theatre in its own time. It is the only authoritative book that describes all the main features of the original staging of Shakespearean drama in one volume: the acting companies and their practices, the playhouses, the staging and the audiences. Thoroughly revised and updated, this fourth edition contains fresh materials about how specific plays by Shakespeare were first staged, and provides new information about the companies that staged them and their playhouses. The book incorporates everything that has been discovered in recent years about the early modern stage, including the archaeology of the Rose and the Globe. Also included is an invaluable appendix, listing all the plays known to have been performed at particular playhouses and by specific companies. ... Read more

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Walter Hodges enjoys a unique reputation as both illustrator and scholar of the Renaissance theater. This book consists of fifty of his drawings, with accompanying text, which together reconstruct the original staging of scenes from Shakespeare's plays. This is an attractive and timely book. With the rebuilding of theGlobe Theatre on Bankside, scholars, actors and directors are confronting again the problems of staging that Shakespeare's theater provokes. Walter Hodges' ingenious and practical solutions will appeal to students and theatergoers alike. ... Read more

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This title includes the first four volumes of the eighteen-volume series, "Great Shakespeareans", covering the work of fifteen key figures who have influenced the global understanding of Shakespeare. "Great Shakespeareans" offers a systematic account of those figures who have had the greatest influence on the interpretation, understanding and cultural reception of Shakespeare, both nationally and internationally. This major project offers an unprecedented scholarly analysis of the contribution made by the most important Shakespearean critics, editors, actors and directors as well as novelists, poets, composers, and thinkers from the seventeenth to the twentieth century. "Great Shakespeareans" will be an essential resource for students and scholars in Shakespeare studies. ... Read more

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This Companion acquaints the student reader with the forms, contexts, critical and theatrical lives of ten Shakespearean tragedies. It includes the four major tragedies and Titus Andronicus, Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus and Timon of Athens. Chapters on a demanding theatrical genre are clear, concise and informative. They consider how Shakespearean tragedy originated, developed and diversified; and how it has fared in performance. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

The dynamics of Shakespeare's tragic masterpieces
Although designed with undergraduate students in mind, this collection of essays from thirteen scholars who are excellent teachers and writers guarantees that any intelligent Shakespeare fan will be deeply enriched by engaging with "The Cambridge Companion to Shakespearean Tragedy." The multidimensional and interdisciplinary explorations evoked by Shakespeare (the works and the man) study are well surveyed here.

Chapter topics (e.g., language, gender, performance history) necessarily overlapwith those of volumes such as "Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare," but time and space are claimed here for the special concerns that must be brought to bear most critically regarding the monumental tragic works (and even for the 'minor' plays of tragic genre). Concerns about Elizabethan/Jacobean politics and religion are given extended space.

Traditional areas of study are mined for relevance to tragedy. For example, Russ McDonald's chapter on language explicates how rhetoric and its language are weapons as significant to the development of a Shakespearean tragedy as are swords or poisons. David Bevington tackles the fascinating interface of author/artwork to help us consider how/why Shakespeare's artistry developed across his varied approaches to tragic form. Michael Warren helps the beginner appreciate why (seemingly academic issues such as) 'textuality' and 'early performance' are vitally linked to the what-and-why behind tragic struggles and heroes.

Often a single chapter cannot hope to more than scratch the surface of an enormous complex of issues (e.g., Catherine Belsey on "Gender and Family").But in surveys these shortcomings are unavoidable, and the chapters give overviews that are fair and effective.

My primary wish for an enhanced edition would concern the appended "Select Bibliography" - it would be more helpful if broken into sections by subject.Better yet, a "Recommended Further Readings" section at the end of each chapter (as in other Cambridge Companions) would be of more help to the student who wished to research in more depth.

All in all, this Companion is a highly recommended starting point for any reflective reader to broaden their perspective to span such disparate works as Titus, Romeo-Juliet, and Hamlet - and broaden their appreciation of the Bard's achievements. ... Read more

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Reiko Oya explores theatrical expressions of Shakespearean tragedy in Georgian London and the relations between the representative players of the time - David Garrick, John Philip Kemble and his sister Sarah Siddons, and Edmund Kean - and their close circle of friends. The book begins by analysing the tragic emotion that Garrick conveyed through his performance of King Lear, and the responses to it from such critics as Samuel Johnson and Elizabeth Montagu. The second chapter examines the concept of sublimity in Kemble and Siddons' interpretations of Macbeth. The final chapter studies the disparity between the literary and the theatrical Hamlet in Kean's impersonation and William Hazlitt's response to it. With subjects ranging from Shakespearean promptbooks to paintings and the poetics of Romanticism, the book offers great insights into the exchange of ideas and inspirations among the cultural luminaries who surrounded the London stage. ... Read more

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Though one of the greatest dramatists to have written in English, Shakespeare was not entirely original. He borrowed his plots from various sources, reworked his material, and infused it with his keen perception of humanity and unusual gift of language. This book looks at four of Shakespeare's plays--As You Like It, King Lear, Pericles, and The Winter's Tale--and the primary source texts on which they are based, to show how the dramatist refashioned earlier works. Each chapter examines one play in relation to its major source and to the historical and cultural contexts in which both the play and source were written. Shakespeare's sources thus emerge not merely as raw material for plot and character, but as dynamic and often inconsistent texts involving layers of subtextual and intertextual suggestions and assumptions. The volume demonstrates that in his revisionary practices, Shakespeare does not simply borrow selectively from his sources but appropriates, reimagines, and reacts against them, often by developing and expanding upon contrary suggestions already present in his source texts. ... Read more