Book Description

Each generation needs to be introduced to the culture and great works of the past and to reinterpret them in its own ways. This series re-examines the important English dramatists of earlier centuries in the light of new information, new interests and new attitudes. The books will be relevant to those interested in literature, theatre and cultural history, and to the theatre-goers and general readers who want an up-to-date view of these dramatists and their plays, with the emphasis on performance and relevant cultural history. How do the plays Shakespeare wrote during the final decade of his career differ from those written during Elizabeth I's reign? Philip C. McGuire shows that Shakespeare, the professional playwright, was as responsive to box-office considerations as to artistic concerns, was as dedicated to the financial success of the company of actors with whom he worked exclusively from 1594 onwards as to conveying his vision of the human condition. Concentrating on Measure for Measure, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, Coriolanus, The Winter's Tale and The Tempest, McGuire shows the impact on Shakespeare's dramaturgy of changes after 1603 in the circumstances - broadly cultural and specifically theatrical - within which he worked. Those circumstances have continued to change, affecting how his 'Jacobean' plays have been - and are today - performed, understood and valued.