Shakespeare at Work

This text looks at the implications of Shakespeare's revisions for the reader and spectator alike and shows the playwright getting to grips with the problems of characterization and scene formation in such plays as "Hamlet", "Othello", "King Lear", and "Troilus and Cressida".

Much in this book is remarkable. By itself, Jones's treatment of the old debate about the relationships among the earliest editions of Hamlet makes this book worth its price. I find the book filled with striking insights. Jones's work is productive, engaging, and lucid.

Autorentext

The author was born in Southern Rhodesia and is the fourth generation of a Rhodesian pioneering family. He is a graduate of London University; former diplomat in Rhodesia, serving in Lisbon, (Portugal), Lourenço Marques and Beira (Mozambique), and Cape Town and Pretoria (South Africa); former army reserve officer in Rhodesia, undertaking anti-terrorist operations as platoon commander when not on overseas postings as a Foreign Service officer; first Chief of Protocol in Zimbabwe, posted to Prime Minister's office and had frequent direct contact with Prime Minister Robert Mugabe until migration to Australia with family in 1981; graduate of Macquarie University (doctoral degree); Deputy Dean in a small private university level college in Sydney, Australia; and Justice of the Peace in New South Wales.

Klappentext

Why did Shakespeare revise his plays? In a brilliant and pioneering analysis, the distinguished critic John Jones explores the critical and dramatic significance of Shakespeare's revisions. Analyzing such plays as Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Troilus and Cressida, he reveals the artistic impact of the revisions and their importance for our understanding of each play's moral and metaphysical foundations.

Zusammenfassung
It has been established by textual specialists, and is now becoming widely accepted, that Shakespeare revised many of his plays, including some of the most celebrated. But how were the great tragedies altered and with what effect? John Jones looks at the implications of Shakespeare's revisions for the reader and spectator alike and shows the playwright getting to grips with the problems of characterization and scene formation in such plays as Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Troilus and Cressida. This is vivid, enthralling stuff. Jones carries his argument down, as he puts it, to the very tip of Shakespeare's quill pen. In characteristically lucid and accessible prose, he assesses recent textual scholarship on Shakespeare's revisions and illuminates the artistic impact of the revised texts and their importance for our understanding of each play's moral and metaphysical foundations. Shakespeare at Work brings together English literature's greatest writer and one of its most distinguished critics. The result is a book that will prove a revelation - essential and also fascinating reading for scholars, students, and Shakespeare enthusiasts alike.

Inhalt

• 1: The One Manuscript: Sir Thomas More

• 2: The Printed Texts: The History Plays especially, and Troilus and Cressida

• 3: Hamlet

• Alas, Poor Yorick

• What's Hecuba to Him?

• The Heart of My Mystery

• Denmark's a Prison

• 4: King Lear

• Prince Hamlet and King Lear

• The Seven Stars

• Value and Meaning

• Romance into Tragedy

• 5: Othello: Improving This Play

• Coda

• Bibliography

• Index