The Reduced Shakespeare Co. presentsThe Compleat Works of Wllm Shkspr (abridged)

Book Description

The complete script to the critically acclaimed play. "Shakespeare as written by Reader's Digest, acted by Monty Python, and performed at the speed of the minute waltz." - L.A. Herald

Customer Reviews:

Read This!.......2007-06-07

Absolutely Hilarious! I would love to go see this play, however the book has annotations that are priceless, so you won't want to miss this either. You won't be able to put this down.

One of the funniest plays I've ever read.......2007-05-12

I bought this to decide whether or not to audition for a part in a local theater group performing the play. I didn't audition because I was on the opposite side of the atlantic ocean at the time, but five stars without question. The Reduced Shakespeare Company does a hilarious job of telling every single shakespeare play faster than ever before. Read this play!

The Complete Works of Shakespeare, Abridged.......2007-03-09

Awesome. As fun as a show can be. Audiences will love it. Readers will laugh aloud heartily.

Hilarious.......2006-07-11

Complete script of the Reduced Shakespeare company's Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged). The footnotes are priceless. I bought three so that we can preform it for our college drama group.

Great Stuff.......2006-03-27

I am a theater student at Knox College and I absoluitly love this show. I is very funny and it is not only for those people that are English Lit majors. The show is fun and entertaining for everyone. The script is very funny and I would encourage everyone to check out other titles by this group of people.

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Listening for the Music in Shakespeare's Plays
Great sourcebook--with a grain of salt

Shakespeare's Songbook
Ross W. Duffin
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company
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Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0393058891

Book Description

A remarkable work that recovers the songs Shakespeare's audiences actually heard and brings them to life through performance.

Shakespeare lovers have long lamented that so few songs in his plays survive with original music; of about sixty song lyrics, only a handful have come down to us with musical settings. For over 150 years, scholars have aspired—without success—to fill that gap. In Shakespeare's Songbook, Ross W. Duffin does just that.

Eight years in the making, Shakespeare's Songbook is a meticulously researched collection of 160 songs—ballads and narratives, drinking songs, love songs, and rounds—that appear in, are quoted in, or alluded to in Shakespeare's plays. Drawing substantially on the unmatched resources of the Folger Shakespeare Library, Duffin brings complete lyrics (many newly recovered) and music notation together for the first time, and in the process sheds new light on Shakespeare's dramatic art. With performances by leading early-music singers and instrumentalists, the accompanying audio CD brings the songbook to life. Shakespeare's Songbook is the perfect gift for lovers of Shakespeare and an invaluable reference for singers, actors, directors, and scholars. 49 illustrations, 500 music examples.

Customer Reviews:

Listening for the Music in Shakespeare's Plays.......2006-06-21

It is with pleasure that I recommend Ross Duffin's Shakespeare's Songbook. Foregrounding the musical allusions in Shakespeare's plays, Duffin asks us to radically re-conceive our understanding of the Elizabethan experience of attending plays. By demonstrating how Shakespeare at times cites, at other times extracts the popular music of his time, Duffin makes a compelling case for Shakespearean plays as multimedia events. While we think of a play as a series of acts comprised solely of spoken dialogue, Duffin shows us how Shakespeare uses musical excerpts and allusions to ballads and other "pop music" of his day in order to amplify his meaning. Duffin's findings suggest that the Elizabethan experience of going to a play would be akin to our experience of watching a film like Moulin Rouge, which cuts and pastes our pop music into a narrative. (Except, of course, that Shakespeare did it so much better!) Part of what makes this book so amazing is that Duffin has reconstructed tunes and songs to which Shakespeare only alludes! The companion CD allows us to get a taste of what the music would have sounded like--performed, I might add, on period instruments!

I do want to clarify something mentioned in the previous review. The writer ends by noting, "the authors have definitely opened the book on the subject of Shakespeare's music." Perhaps this is a typo, but there are no authors (plural). Ross Duffin is the author. Perhaps the reviewer doesn't understand that someone (in this case, Stephen Orgel) could write the foreword for a book without being its author. At any rate, clarification is in order.

This book has changed how I think about and teach Shakespeare. I hope that directors and actors take it up, so that they can return at least some of the music to Shakespeare's plays.

Great sourcebook--with a grain of salt.......2004-05-03

Ross Duffin has performed a mighty feat--coming up with pre-composed music for all the Shakespeare lyrics--including some never before published. This is a wonderful resource and a great starting point for anyone who wants to understand the musical references in Shakespeare's plays, and also for anyone who wants to use period music for actual productions.

That said, there are many traps for the unwary. Duffin has, at the same time, cast his net too widely and too narrowly. He has taken the reasonable step of starting by looking for printed ballads with similar verse patterns to Shakespeare lyrics and then finding which of those ballad tunes that seems to fit the Shakespeare verse the best. This can make for anomalies, however: so often, the best fit is either "Robin Goodfellow," also known as "Dulcina," or "Goddesses." This in spite of the fact that both these tunes seem to originate rather late for the purpose: the first surviving example of "Dulcina," and also the first written record of its existence, dates from 1615, five years after Shakespeare retired from the theather, and "Goddesses" dates from 1650 or thereabouts. Duffin generously acknowledge these facts in each individual case. But he uses both these tunes far too often in the collection as a whole, given their tenuous existence in Shakespeare's own day. Some other suggested tunes also seem to date from much later.

The idea that most of these verses would have been sung to ballad tunes also seems far too simplistic, given what we know of the variety of theatrical songs in general that survive from this period, songs such as the anonymous "Have you seen but the white lily grow," as well as the works of Robert Johnson and theatrical viol consort songs such as "The dark is my delight." It seems extremely unlikely, for example, that several lines before singing Robert Johnson's setting of "Full fathom five" at the opening of _The Tempest_, that Ariel would have sung "Come unto these yellow sands" to a ballad tune instead of to another song by Robert Johnson that happens not to survive. Or that "Full fathom five" would be used three different times in one play, never mind that it's hard to imagine that a character who is enough of a lowlife to sing "The captain, the swabber, the boatswain and I" would even know such a refined and sophisticated melody to to which to set it. My personal suggestions would be "Heigh ho the cramp" for "I shall no more to sea" and "Sellenger's Round" for "The captain, the swabber. . ."

Duffin was occasionally guilty of picking tunes that fit the words awkwardly at best, such as "While you here do snoring lie" from _The Tempest_ to "The Hunt is Up," or using primarily instrumental tunes such as "Nutmings and Ginger," which contain awkward rhythms for singing English, creating word patterns that resembl neither pre-composed vocal music nore surviving folk song. And at least once, he failed to read the stage directions closely, which resulted in actually ommitting text from the song--in this case, Caliban's song in _The Tempest_, which he begins with the words "No more dams I'll lay for fish." According to the stage directions, the song actually begins with the line, "Farewell, master, farewell, farewell." With the first line restored, the song fits very well to another tune known as "Night piece, or "The Shaking of the Sheets." (For anyone interested to hunt up this one, see _The British Broadside Ballad and its Music_ by Claude M. Simpson or _Old English Popular Music_ by William Chappell.) Granted, the first line is not italicised in the First Folio, but neither is the first line of the "Farewell, dear heart" sequence from _Tweltfh Night_, which is obviously meant to be sung, since it is the first line of the tune that the drunkards use for their banter.

Also, Duffin suggests "Where griping griefs" as a tune for a couple of songs aside from the original in _Romeo and Juliet_, but offers no written-out accompaniment, which renders the tune impractical. It contains leaps of a dminished octave, which would be rather awkward for actors who haven't had extensive musical training (or even many singers who have) to manage alone.

To sum up, the authors have definitely opened the book on the subject of Shakespeare's music--but they haven't closed it.

The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke: Applause First Folio Editions (Applause Shakespeare Library Folio Texts)

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How does one make a play by Shakespeare accessible to those disinclined to read one?The answer is Sixty-MinuteShakespeare Series
helpful
Great for studying Hamlet!
Helpful edition; entertaining play.
A good reading copy

The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke: Applause First Folio Editions (Applause Shakespeare Library Folio Texts)
William Shakespeare
Manufacturer: Applause Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1557833788

Book Description

If there ever has been a groundbreaking edition that likewise returns the reader to the original Shakespeare text, it will be the Applause Folio Texts. If there has ever been an accessible version of the Folio, it is this edition, set for the first time in modern fonts. The Folio is the source of all other editions. The Folio text forces us to re-examine the assumptions and prejudices which have encumbered over four hundred years of scholarship and performance. Notes refer the reader to subsequent editorial interventions, and offer the reader a multiplicity of interpretations. Notes also advise the reader on variations between Folios and Quartos. The heavy mascara of four centuries of Shakespearean glossing has by now glossed over the original countenance of Shakespeare's work. Never has there been a Folio available in modern reading fonts. While other complete Folio editions continue to trade simply on the facsimile appearance of the Elizabethan "look," none of them is easily and practically utilized in general Shakespeare studies or performances.

Customer Reviews:

How does one make a play by Shakespeare accessible to those disinclined to read one?The answer is Sixty-MinuteShakespeare Series.......2007-07-14

Reviewed By: Beverly Krueger, Eclectic Homeschool Online

How does one make a play by Shakespeare accessible to those disinclined to read or see one? Or how do you make it possible for those who just don't have the time to do the play full justice, but nevertheless want to have more than just a taste of the bard, to find the time to read it? The answer is the Sixty-Minute Shakespeare series. I've got in my hands their version of Hamlet. There are two important distinctions to this edition. First, it is abridged. The core of the play is left untouched, so the play and its themes are still understandable. Famous soliloquies are also left untouched. The dialogue that fleshes out the minor characters is often abbreviated. Second, the play is rendered in the original language, but uses standard spelling. This is not a modernized version of the play.

The Sixty Minute Shakespeare series was also written to give a shorter, easier to produce version of the play for theater groups that wanted to put on a production of a Shakespearean play. Any of this series would be a great production piece for a homeschool theater group. I recommend Hamlet in particular because there are so many resources available to help young actors learn more about their roles, especially the many fine productions of Hamlet on video or DVD. A short section on staging a production gives useful advice for staging and pacing of a production.

For those who want to use this edition for a study of Hamlet, I suggest getting a study guide to help with understanding the themes of the play. The notes at the bottom of each page help with understanding some of the unfamiliar words used, but those who are not familiar with Shakespeare will benefit from additional explanations of what is happening in the text.

helpful.......2007-01-15

I have my degree in English... I like reading and teaching with this version as "help" not as a substitution. It gives a clearer understanding to Shakespeare for people who have difficulty with it.

Great for studying Hamlet!.......2007-01-10

I had to use this for a course I was taking. This book was very clear and very helpful. It definetely made reading Hamlet a lot clearer and simpler.

Helpful edition; entertaining play........2006-09-14

"Hamlet" was not a Shakespearean play I had plan on reading outside of my Movement in Theatre class and this edition made it one hundred times easier. I had to read the play in a week, so reading the modern English side made that process effortless. I then read over the original Shakespeare version when I had to focus on the character Ophelia. Overall, I found that this play was easier to read in Shakespeare's writing, as opposed to some of his other plays. The play is interesting, but I felt the ending to be boring. I "sorta" recommend.

A good reading copy.......2006-08-25

Once you get used to the layout, this is a good copy to read along with as you listen to the play. Some valuable insights too and not just for students.

Measure for Measure: Applause First Folio Editions (Applause Shakespeare Library Folio Texts)

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One I saw performed, so I love this play
Measure for Measure
Measure for Measure
A Hero With A Swollen Ego. But Still A Decent Play.
bad version great play

Measure for Measure: Applause First Folio Editions (Applause Shakespeare Library Folio Texts)
William Shakespeare
Manufacturer: Applause Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1557832919

Book Description

Customer Reviews:

One I saw performed, so I love this play.......2007-05-24

In order to truly appreciate Shakespeare's genius, I find it beneficial to see the plays performed. It makes the reading of the play later so much more enjoyable. This play is a wonderful tragic comedy. It is probably the darkest of all his comedies. Each of the characters faces his own epiphany and they are forced to come to terms with their own morality, as well as their own mortality. The play is gloomy and pessimistic. The play is set in Vienna. It forces the watcher of the play to reexamine all these issues in his or her own life. Very worthwhile.

Measure for Measure.......2007-05-15

Measure for Measure can best be described as Romeo and Juliet but with a happy ending. Or perhaps the sequel to Romeo and Juliet if the two hadn't taken such drastic measures (ha-ha!) at the end. In fact, the woman whose lover is short for this world is named Juliet and the play is once more set in Italy (though this time in Venice).

The play pokes fun at sex in and out of marriage and the "oldest profession" but beyond all the bawdy jokes, is a cautionary tale against morality based government. Juliet's lover, Claudio, is soon to be hanged for getting Juliet pregnant. It's an old law on the books, not enforced for ages until the Duke hands over the city to his would-be successor.
While the play may have been written at the turn of the seventeenth century, it is still relevant and on topic.

Measure for Measure.......2007-01-04

Great book! One of the classic Shakespeare dramas. Full of witty humor.

A Hero With A Swollen Ego. But Still A Decent Play. .......2006-07-15

This is a darker comedy of Shakespeare's that was never so popular (except briefly in the 1700s). If you're willing to see past the fact that the hero (the Duke) is essentially playing God, it is an interesting play. Duke Vincentio is supposedly leaving for awhile, and he leaves Angelo in charge. Well, in comes the case of Claudio. Claudio has gotten his fiance Juliet pregnant before the wedding. (They still love each other, but they are not married yet. Some of you may know, the master Shakespeare himself was in this situation. He got his to be wife pregnant, and he had to marry her. It would seem that Shakespeare himself had something of a shotgun wedding.) Well, back to the play. Angelo is merciless and feels that only death is a suitable punishment. Claudio's sister Isabella (who is in the process of becoming a nun) pleads for mercy, and Angelo says he will consider it if Isabella agrees to sleep with him. Naturally, Isabella refuses. One character flaw is that when Isabella tells this to her doomed brother, he humanly asks her to at least consider it, and Isabella rebukes him in a fierce manner. Asimov put it best when he said: "She might not give into Claudio, but she might at least sympathize with his fear of death and forgive him his human weakness. She does not...Isabella shrieks out at her brother." Disguised as a friar, the duke calms Isabella down and tells her Claudio may still be saved. He tells her to agree to Angelo's demands, but Mariana (a girl Angelo desserted sometime ago) will go in her place. At the end of 3.2, the duke gives an interesting passage on the hypocrisy of people: "Shame to him whose cruel striking / kills for faults of his own liking" (3.2.270-271). Later there is an element of dark comedy when the Duke plans to have an older prisoner Barnadine killed in Claudio's place, but Barnadine is so drunk and he comically refuses the directions that will lead to his execution. (So much for that plan.) One thing I found somewhat repulsive in the duke is that he knows he is going to save Claudio, but he decides to play God and tell Isabella that Claudio is dead but she will be satisfied. By the end of the 4th act, we learn that Angelo has slept with Mariana (thinking she was Isabella) and he starts to show some elements of a conscience. (Though not quite as convincingly as Macbeth or Claudius do so.) By the 5th act, the duke is still playing god by allowing Isabella to think Claudio is dead, and pretending to go along with Angelo's accusations of Isabella. But eventually, all is revealed. Claudio is still alive and even Barnadine will be pardoned. Angelo must also marry Mariana. Many people feel that Angelo got off too easy, but remember, this is suppose to be a comedy, and Isaac Asimov put it best when he said: "...many critics (as savage as Angelo) condemn the play because they want to see the man hanged. Yet is it only for those we sympathize that mercy is to be sought?...It is precisely to those whom we hate that we must show mercy if the word is to have any meaning at all."

bad version great play.......2006-07-10

The foot notes in this play are dreadful most often defining what you don't need to know and leaving out what you do.Unfourtanlly i cant make another recomendation but no fear is great in the plays it's avaliable and the internet is great for looking up those ever nagging words.And outstanding play easily applied to modeern issues of abortion and gay marriage. What is love? What is virtue, and what is just being a snob or a prude? I'm a teen and would recomend this play to any teen who thnks who things shakespheare is either dull dated or melodramtic.pompey is the orginal example of its hard out here for a hoe.Real moral struggles real humor if most kids understood the bard you bet they'd be barred from reading him.

Classical Monologues: Volume 1, Younger Men

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Classical Monolgues by Leon Katz

Classical Monologues: Volume 1, Younger Men
Leon Katz
Manufacturer: Applause Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1557835756

Book Description

Sure to become a mainstay of any actor's shelf, Applause is pleased to present the first two volumes of Leon Katz's monumental monologue collection. Covering the full scope of Western Drama, from the Greeks to the 20th Century, these two volumes contain over 250 monologues from sources other than Shakespeare's plays. The works range from the famous to the little-known, covering over 2,000 years of theatrical history. Katz provides an introduction to each monologue that provides an informative and critical context for actors, directors, students and teachers, but are also of relevance to general readers. Each volume is organized into Tragedy/Drama and Comedy divisions, and the monologues are helpfully arranged by period as well as chronologically. Also, the monologues are fully footnooted afor unfamiliar references and definitions and the bibliography provides exhaustive listings of sources for all the plays from which the monologues have been drawn. Simply put, these two volumes are a must for actors, directors, teachers and students of classical theatre!

Customer Reviews:

Classical Monolgues by Leon Katz.......2003-04-04

Leon Katz's volumes of classical monologues provide an excellent resouce tool for actors and educators. Some well-known, some deliciously obscure, these rich monolgues can expand and deepen an actor's repetoire of audition and class material. In addition, Mr. Katz's introductory notes to each monologue provide a wonderfully astute historical and theatrical context for each selection. A superb addition to the theatre practitioner's library.

On the Open Road: New York Shakespeare Edition

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Amazing

On the Open Road: New York Shakespeare Edition
Steve Tesich
Manufacturer: Applause Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Square One

ASIN: 1557831343

Book Description

Set in a landscape stripped bare by civil war, two "independents" forge an alliance of convenience in order to buy their way into the land of the free, the one safe haven in an otherwise lawless landscape. Hiding from marauding armies, they travel the country, gathering great art treasures from crumbling museums. But with the border to freedom in sight, they're captured by forces from the new coalition government. They can still buy their freedom - if they agree to do one little job for the new government.

Customer Reviews:

Amazing.......1999-12-25

This is quite simply the finest play in American drama. It goes next to "Waiting For Godet" as the quintessential play of the modern era. It is insightful, provocative, and hilarious. The protagonists, Al and Angel, are the heroes of a new time. Tesich was a genius and his death was a great loss to the theatre community. Once in a lifetime a play will change your life; this play is the one that changed mine.

Music from the Age of Shakespeare: A Cultural History

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Something for everyone
Something for everyone

Music from the Age of Shakespeare: A Cultural History
Suzanne Lord
Manufacturer: Greenwood Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0313317135

Book Description

This book introduces every important aspect of the Elizabethan music world. In ten scrupulously researched yet accessible chapters, Lord examines the lives of composers, the evolution of musical instruments, the Elizabethan system of musical notation, and the many textures and traditions of Elizabethan music. Biographical entries introduce the most significant and prolific composers as well as the members of royal society who influenced Elizabethan musical culture. Both familiar and obscure instruments of the era are described with focus on their musical and social contexts. Various types of music are defined and illustrated, along with an explanation of the musical notation used during this era. Chapter bibliographies, glossaries, and an index provide additional tools for both the novice and the experienced student of music and music history. When Elizabeth ascended to the throne in 1558, England was undergoing tremendous upheaval. Power struggles between Protestants and Catholics shaped the English music world as musicians' livelihoods were directly linked to their religious allegiances. Music became a form of strategy within court politics, and secular music evolved through the musical and poetic influences of the Italian Renaissance. Events of the day were told and retold through music, class and social differences were sung with relish, and rituals of love and life were set to story and song. When England defeated the vaunted Spanish Armada in 1588, a victorious nation expressed its jubilance through music.

Customer Reviews:

Something for everyone.......2003-11-15

Easy to read and delish to digest, this book is written for lovers of the Elizabethan period or with an interest in either English or Music History.
It is filled with tidbits that will spur you to learn more about our language and traditions that shape our world even today.
Five golden stars for this one, Suzanne!

Something for everyone.......2003-11-15

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Shaw on Shakespeare
George Bernard Shaw
Manufacturer: Applause Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1557835616

Book Description

"With the single exception of Homer, there is no eminent writer, not even Sir Walter Scott, whom I can despise so entirely as I despise Shakespeare when I measure my mind against his." - From SHAW ON SHAKESPEARE Celebrated playwright, critic and essayist George Bernard Shaw was more like the Elizabethan master that he would ever admit. Both men were intristic dramatists who shared a rich and abiding respect for the stage. Shakespeare was the produce of a tempestuous and enlightening era under the reign of his patron, Queen Elizabeth I; while G.B.S. reflected the racy and risque spirt of the late 19th century as the champion of modern drama by playwrights like Ibsen, and, later, himself. Culled from Shaw's reviews, prefaces, letters to actors and critics, and other writings, SHAW ON SHAKESPEARE offers a fascinating and unforgettable portrait of the 16th century playwright by his most outspoken critic. This is a witty and provocative classic that combines Shaw's prodigious critical acumen with a superlative prose style second to none (except, perhaps, Shakespeare!).

Shakespeare's First Texts: Folio Scripts

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Shakespeare's First Texts: Folio Scripts
William Shakespeare , and Neil Freeman
Manufacturer: Applause Books
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Binding: Paperback

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Designed for both general reader and the actor, Shakespeare's First Texts is about possibility and imagination. It shows the differences between the way the texts of Shakespeare's were first presented to the world, and the highly changed way they appear now.

The Merchant of Venice: The Applause Shakespeare Library

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The unplayable play
Shakespeare's Comedy/Tragedy of Marriage and its Interrelationships
Context is the king of this comedy!
Reversing our point of view toward the 'Justice'
Time has made Merchant into a tragedy

The Merchant of Venice: The Applause Shakespeare Library
William Shakespeare
Manufacturer: Applause Books
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Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1557833885

Book Description

These popular editions allow the reader and student to look beyond the scholarly reading text to the more sensuous, more collaborative, more malleable performance text which emerges in conjunction with the commentary and notes. Each note, each gloss, each commentary reflects the stage life of the play with constant reference to the challenge of the text in performance. Readers will not only discover an enlivened Shakespeare, they will be empowered to rehearse and direct their own productions of the imagination in the process.

Customer Reviews:

The unplayable play.......2007-01-21

As Harold Bloom says, this has become an unplayable play after the Holocaust. This is only an additional reason why one should read it. The play is fantastic and gives us one of Shakespeare's most memorable characters: Shylock. Whether you see him as villain or victim, Shylock is unforgettable. As is his speech defending the Jewish.

Shakespeare's Comedy/Tragedy of Marriage and its Interrelationships.......2006-03-22

The New Folger Library of Shakespeare's Tragedies and Comedies are among the best pocket editions available for the student and the journeyman lover of the Bard.

Before the actual text of the play which is wisely presented on the right hand page with explanatory notes (metaphors, allusions, similes, etc.) facing on the left hand page (words and phrases are defined by scholars based on their usage during Shakespeare's time; if scholars are inconclusive as to meaning, the word `uncertain' is used to connote this disagreement), the usual `Reading Shakespeare's Language', `Shakespeare's Life', `Shakespeare's Theatre', `Publication of Shakespeare's Plays' and `Introduction to the Text' introduce the reader to the Shakespearean world. Following the text, an essay by Alexander Leggatt follows illuminating `The Merchant of Venice' for the modern reader. In addition, an eleven page `Further Reading' list pinpoints books and essays on topics like the play itself, Shakespeare, the time in which he lived and the Globe Theatre. Rounding out the vital information is a three page "Key to Famous Lines and Phrases" complete with speaker and verse notation.

As far as the play itself, I will keep my remarks limited, saying only that for the modern audience, Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice" borders on the provocative. All with politically correct upbringing or today's cultural sensitivity training cannot help but focus on the reigning prejudice of the early Medieval and Renaissance time period, namely the exclusion of Jews from all forms of normal life since mainstream thought withheld that this race was primarily responsible for Christ's crucifixion.

Indeed, today's reader will pose the question as to whether or not this play should be deemed more tragedy than comedy and must remember that as a comedy, "The Merchant of Venice" focuses on marriage, couples (Bassanio/Portia, Lorenzo/Jessica, Gratiano/Nerissa) and their emotional and financial interrelationships and uses sly humor and innuendo to poke fun at Venice's societal `outsiders'(Shylock, Morocco, Aragorn and in a lesser sense Antonio) who do not form a Shakespearean couple per se. Looked at from this perspective, the character of Shylock becomes simply the play's foremost societal outcast, in spite of the famous speech where he asks seemingly so poignantly, "If you prick us, do we not bleed?"

Bottom line: Shakespeare is Shakespeare. If your modern sensibilities are offended by Shakespeare's treatment of Shylock the Jew, the Prince of Morocco and the Prince of Aragorn and question the unhappy and solitary Antonio's intense feelings for Bassanio, simply keep in mind that the world at that time looked at such things differently. Within the definition of comedy, this play with its multitude of lovely speeches and images works well indeed. The New Folger Library edition simply makes the play more easily accessible and understood on the various levels of language and scholarship. I recommend this series wholeheartedly.

Diana F. Von Behren
"reneofc"

Context is the king of this comedy!.......2006-03-15

THE MERCHANT OF VENICE can be described as a tragedy only if one follows the modern definition of "tragedy" and not the Greek. The genre of tragedy in which Shakespeare wrote required that all of the players, or at least all of the main players, die at the end, à la ROMEO AND JULIET, JULIUS CAESAR, MACBETH, and HAMLET. In fact, MERCHANT OF VENICE can only be described as a tragedy if Shylock is seen as the main character and not Antonio. (Note, in the list of players at the beginning of the play, only Antonio is called a "merchant of Venice".) In sum, THE MERCHANT OF VENICE can only be described as a tragedy if it is completely removed from its historical context.

Shakespeare intended that the actions taken by Antonio, by Shylock, by Bassanio, and even by Portia be seen as comically extreme. Antonio goes to the lengths of seeking help from a man he despises to help a man he loves. Shylock demands nothing but justice, even when the demands of the agreement he made is met and even doubled. Everywhere in this play is there action taken to the extreme.

Only a refusal to acknowledge the historical context would be blind to the comedy. There are stage plays, television shows, and screenplays aplenty which follow the example set forth in MERCHANT OF VENICE, showing how comical people can be when their actions are taken to the extreme. If MERCHANT OF VENICE can be view in THIS context, then the comedy shines through.

As a writer, I find it comical that anyone would use MERCHANT OF VENICE to point the finger of "racism" at Shakespeare. Part of a writer's challenge is to present convincingly views even he or she disagrees with. The best writer would try to dismantle and disprove the very beliefs he or she holds dear. That Shakespeare has often been judged a racist based on his portrayal of Shylock serves only as testimony to the continuing success of this play. Shylock's speech, complimented by another reviewer, is ample proof that Shakespeare's own views are well hid. Shylock's speech demonstrates magnificently that Shakespeare was able to get inside the head of any man (or woman) in his stories and write the words which that man would speak, faithfully render the thoughts which that man would think, have that man act as only that man would act, and all of it be believable. Simply put, unless you knew beforehand a writer's views on any subject, it would be difficult to find the needle of truth in his or her haystack of fiction if that writer has done their job well, and in this case Shakespeare was damned near flawless!

It is true that the movie, starring Al Pacino, does not present this play as a comedy, but that hardly detracts from its excellence. It shows, in fact, that MERCHANT OF VENICE plays well as both a drama and a comedy. In our age, however, given the importance of religious tolerance, I'll admit that it is probably best played as a drama.

As for the Pelican series of Shakespeare's plays, they are an excellent resource for anyone wanting to read and study the Bard's work. I've several volumes in this series and hope to eventually own them all. Each volume contains two identical essays, "The Theatrical World" (which provides a good understanding of the historical context, as well as an idea of just how much we know about Shakespeare as an individual) and "The Texts of Shakespeare" (which gives more historical context and also discusses some of the difficulties which editors have experienced in presenting these plays in print to modern audiences). There is then an introduction to each play, which is best left unread until afterwards if you aren't familiar with the play. The footnotes are few, but well-chosen, and do help in understanding words and phrases whose meanings have changed over the centuries.

Reversing our point of view toward the 'Justice'.......2005-12-16

Anti-festive character who is Shylock on this play sacrificed unjustly. Shylock is a character who is legally invoking his rights as a money-lender among the community which experiencing transition from agriculture society to capitalistic society. Moroever, the character Portia's defending Bassanio as an disguised attorney is unreasonable in some ways and speech is crude, indeed.
In my opinion, to reach the axiomatically righteous conclusion, we should reverse pur point of view toward the 'Justice'. It is a transformation of way of our thinking. Therefore, I recommend rhis masterpiece for someone who aspire to ponder about our human being's viewpoint.

Time has made Merchant into a tragedy.......2005-12-06

Shylock is the only sympathetic character in the play. Modernity has altered the villain in "The Merchant of Venice" from Shylock to the entire cast of characters EXCEPT for Shylock. Any sense of comedy in the play died for those with a sense of religious tolerance, and Shylock comes off as merely oppressed. I found Act 5 almost nauseating after the forced conversion. That, coupled with the happy racism makes a perversion of decency and happy endings. This play is a tragedy. The recent movie version done starring Al Pacino turned it into a tragedy, and amazingly, a play written as a comedy seems to work very well as a tragedy.

Antonio gladly spits upon Shylock and calls him a dog, but stunningly, when Antonio finds himself in a financial pinch he goes to Shylock for money. More brash is Antonio's promise to act the same in the future: "I am as like to call thee so again, / To spet on thee again, to spurn thee, too." (1.3.127-28) From this point on, sympathy for Antonio is paralyzed in a modern reader's mind, from reminders of past images, from slavery and anti-Semitism, where the dehumanizing of a group of people is accepted by a society. The entire text afterward reads like an indictment of humanity, as if Shakespeare is making the Elizabethans laugh at their own behavior.

In perhaps the best argument in Shylock's defense in the trial, he point out the fact that those who speak of mercy own slaves. "What judgment shall I dread, doing no wrong? / You have among you many a purchased slave." (4.1.89-90) Shylock, as fanatical as he is over the pound of flesh, is asking for only a pound of a man, when the slaveholders own the entire person. The play is littered with prejudiced remarks that clearly show how animalistic Shylock was to them.

Every conversation involving Shylock has ridicule from the Christians, without remorse or a feeling of comedy. The Christian children are taught to mock Shylock, they run after him in the street. The merchants spit on him, the Duke reviles him, his daughter renounces her religion and robs him.

Still an amazing story, with a few of the best on mercy and prejudice ever written.

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