Special Collections
Wonderful William Shakespeare
Description: All his literature in all its many versions!
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Longman School Shakespeare
by William ShakespeareFor pupils aged 11 to 16, this edition of 'Macbeth' includes photographs from a range of productions to encourage students to think about different productions, and targeted support to help all pupils understand the play and its language.
Longman School Shakespeare
by William ShakespeareFully updated to meet the needs of the GCSE 2010 specifications, this text provides specific support to help students realise their full potential. The most accessible texts with supportive notes, activities and advice to engage students.
A Lover's Complaint
by William Shakespeare"A Lover's Complaint" is a narrative poem published as an appendix to the original edition of Shakespeare's Sonnets. It is given the title "A Lover's Complaint" in the book, which was published by Thomas Thorpe in 1609.
Although published as Shakespeare's work, the poem's authorship has become a matter of critical debate. The majority opinion is that it is by Shakespeare, though of inferior quality to his other works.
The poem consists of forty-seven seven-line stanzas written in the rhyme royal (with the rhyme scheme ababbcc), a metre and structure identical to that of Shakespeare's poem The Rape of Lucrece. After a scene-setting introduction, the poem takes the form of a lengthy speech by an abandoned young woman, including a speech within her speech, as she recounts the words by which she was seduced.
A Lover's Complaint
by William ShakespeareA young woman tells of her seduction and abandonment by a young man who proves to be unworthy of her charm and beauty. After a scene-setting introduction, the poem takes the form of a lengthy speech by the abandoned young woman, including a speech within her speech, as she recounts the words by which she was seduced.
Love's Labour's Lost
by William ShakespeareWhen Ferdinand, the king of Navarre, and his companions swear off of the company of women for three years in order to study and fast, they find themselves wholly unprepared for the lack of female company. By the time Princess of France and her ladies arrive, the men find themselves utterly beguiled by the women. Love's Labour's Lost is one of William Shakespeare's early comedies, believed to have been written in the mid-1590s for a performance at the Inns of Court before Queen Elizabeth I. The play draws on themes of masculine love and desire, reckoning and rationalization, and reality versus fantasy.
Love's Labour's Lost
by William ShakespeareAt first glance, Shakespeare’s early comedy Love’s Labor’s Lost simply entertains and amuses. Four young men (one of them a king) withdraw from the world for three years, taking an oath that they will have nothing to do with women. The King of Navarre soon learns, however, that the Princess of France and her ladies are about to arrive. Although he lodges them outside of his court, all four men fall in love with the ladies, abandoning their oaths and setting out to win their hands. The laughter triggered by this story is augmented by subplots involving a braggart soldier, a clever page, illiterate servants, a parson, a schoolmaster, and a constable so dull that he is named Dull. Letters and poems are misdelivered, confessions are overheard, entertainments are presented, and language is played with, and misused, by the ignorant and learned alike. At a deeper level, Love’s Labor’s Lost also teases the mind. The men begin with the premise that women either are seductresses or goddesses. The play soon makes it clear, however, that the reality of male-female relations is different. That women are not identical to men’s images of them is a common theme in Shakespeare’s plays. In Love’s Labor’s Lost it receives one of its most pressing examinations.
Macbeth
by William ShakespeareMacbeth dramatises the damaging physical and psychological effects of political ambition on those who seek power for its own sake. A brave Scottish general named Macbeth receives a prophecy from a trio of witches that one day he will become King of Scotland. Consumed by ambition and spurred to action by his wife, Macbeth murders King Duncan and takes the Scottish throne for himself. He is then wracked with guilt and paranoia. Forced to commit more and more murders to protect himself from enmity and suspicion, he soon becomes a tyrannical ruler. The bloodbath and consequent civil war swiftly take Macbeth and Lady Macbeth into the realms of madness and death.
Measure for Measure
by William ShakespeareWhen the Duke of Vienna leaves the city under the governance of Angelo, a strict judge, Claudio and Juliet find themselves in violation of Vienna's severe morality laws. With Claudio's life at risk, Isabella, his sister and a novice nun, agrees to plead the case before Angelo. The duke, disguised as a friar, helps Isabella when it becomes apparent Angelo will only help if she compromises herself, and her beliefs. One of Shakespeare's more complex comedies, Measure for Measure examines ethical and moral issues that still resonate today.
The Merchant of Venice
by Cedric Watts and William ShakespeareThe Wordsworth Classics' Shakespeare Series presents a newly-edited sequence of William Shakespeare's works. The textual editing takes account of recent scholarship while giving the material a careful reappraisal. The Merchant of Venice is one of Shakespeare's most popular comedies, but it remains deeply controversial. The text may seem anti-Semitic; yet repeatedly, in performance, it has revealed a contrasting nature. Shylock, though vanquished in the law-court, often triumphs in the theatre. In his intensity he can dominate the play, challenging abrasively its romantic and lyrical affirmations. What results is a bitter-sweet drama. Though The Merchant of Venice offers some of the traditional pleasures of romantic comedy, it also exposes the operations of prejudice. Thus Shakespeare remains our contemporary. Suitable for all secondary level study up to GCSE/Standard Grade, this edition contains two sets of differentiated activities at the end of each act. The activities are designed to develop student understanding of the play and its themes.
The Merchant of Venice
by William ShakespeareShakespearean play with two subplots 1) Antonio defaults on a loan from Shylock the Jew, who demands his life as bond 2) Portia must marry the man who passes a test her father arranged.
The Merchant of Venice
by William ShakespeareVenetian nobleman Antonio stands to lose a pound of flesh when he is unable to repay a loan due to the Jewish moneylender Shylock.
The Merchant Of Venice
by William ShakespeareWorking in partnership with the RSC, this brand new series is ideal for introducing students to Shakespeare's plays. Using trusted and established RSC approaches, Shakespeare's plays come to life in the classroom and establish a deeper understanding and lasting appreciation of his work. Comprising the most popular plays used in schools, these full-colour editions include the RSC's active approaches to exploring the text, vibrant RSC performance photographs, page summaries, glosses, contextual information and much more. This unique series aims to motivate and inspire students in their early encounters with Shakespeare's plays whilst giving students confidence for all stages of their study of Shakespeare.
The Merchant of Venice (PDF)
by Cedric Watts and William ShakespeareThe Wordsworth Classics' Shakespeare Series presents a newly-edited sequence of William Shakespeare's works. The textual editing takes account of recent scholarship while giving the material a careful reappraisal. The Merchant of Venice is one of Shakespeare's most popular comedies, but it remains deeply controversial. The text may seem anti-Semitic; yet repeatedly, in performance, it has revealed a contrasting nature. Shylock, though vanquished in the law-court, often triumphs in the theatre. In his intensity he can dominate the play, challenging abrasively its romantic and lyrical affirmations. What results is a bitter-sweet drama. Though The Merchant of Venice offers some of the traditional pleasures of romantic comedy, it also exposes the operations of prejudice. Thus Shakespeare remains our contemporary. Suitable for all secondary level study up to GCSE/Standard Grade, this edition contains two sets of differentiated activities at the end of each act. The activities are designed to develop student understanding of the play and its themes.
The Merry Wives of Windsor
by William ShakespeareMistress Page and Mistress Ford set out to have some fun at the expense of John Falstaff, who courts both in the hopes of securing their fortunes.
A Midsummer Night's Dream
by William ShakespeareThe fairies of the forest interfere with the lives of mortals attending the wedding feast of Theseus, Duke of Athens, and Hipployta, and the realms of mortals and fairies collide on one magical midsummer night.
A Midsummer Night's Dream
by William ShakespearePerhaps the most popular of all of Shakespeare's comedies, A Midsummer Night's Dream humorously celebrates the vagaries of love. The approaching wedding festivities of Theseus, Duke of Athens, and his bride-to-be, Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons, are delightfully crisscrossed with in-again, off-again romances of two young pairs of Athenian lovers; a fateful rivalry between the King and Queen of the Fairies; and the theatrical aspirations of a bumbling troupe of Athenian laborers. It all ends happily in wedding-night revelry complete with a play-within-a-play presented by the laborers to the ecstatic amusement of all. This edition, complete with explanatory footnotes, is reprinted from a standard British edition.
A Midsummer Night's Dream
by William Shakespeare and Shane WellerIn this most famous of Shakespeares comedies four mismatched lovers and a troupe of actors become tangled in a quarrel between the fairy king and queen. Love portions and transformed identities create a night of confusion that must be set right.
A Midsummer Night's Dream (Oxford School Shakespeare) (PDF)
by William ShakespeareOxford School Shakespeare is an acclaimed edition especially designed for students, with accessible on-page notes and explanatory illustrations, clear background information, and rigorous but accessible scholarly credentials. This edition includes illustrations, preliminary notes, reading lists (including websites), classroom notes and is complete and unabridged.