| Description |
xviii, 550 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm |
| Contents |
On Shakespeare: First Encounters with Shakespeare -- Why Is Shakespeare So Popular? -- Gary Taylor -- Roger Pringle -- Why Is Shakespeare Boring? -- On Teaching Shakespeare: What Went Wrong? Peggy O'Brien -- Forget the Footnotes! And Other Advice -- Who is Shakespeare?: Some Biographic Bones -- The Shakespeare Who Makes Some of Us Uncomfortable -- Shakespeare's Likeness -- Shakespeare's Name -- Of Graves, Wills, and Epitaphs -- A Look at the Elizabethan Stage: Transvestite Theatre and Boy Actors -- The Globe Excavation -- Andrew Gurr -- Sam Wanamker -- The Plays: Chronology -- Useful Shakespearean Terms -- Shakespeare's Plots -- Editing Shakespeare -- Shakespearean Romantic Comedy: Humor in Shakespeare -- The Taming of the Shrew -- Much Ado About Nothing -- The Merry Wives of Windsor -- Love's Labour's Lost -- Tony Church as the "Fantatical Don Armado" -- The Merchant of Venice -- Shylock -- David Suchet -- Tony Church -- A Midsummer Night's Dream -- On Fairies and Spectacles -- No-Holds Bard: A Glossary of Sexual Slang -- The Santized Shakespeare -- As You Like It -- Twelfth Night, or "What You Will" -- What to Look For In Twelfth Night -- Comedy in Drag -- Anachronisms -- Playing Havoc with the Bard -- Updating Shakespeare -- Peter Sellars -- The Histories: First, A Word of Reassurance -- The History Play Defined -- Outline of Events -- Shakespeare's Epics -- Shakespeare's Sources -- Elizabethan History 101 -- History as Propaganda -- The Politics of the Plays -- Shakespeare's Politics -- Richard II -- What to Look for In Richard II -- Richard II and Essex's Rebellion -- The Henriad -- Henry IV, Part I and Part 2 -- What to Look for in Henry IV -- The Language of Henry IV -- Henry V -- What to Look for in Henry V -- Henry VI, Part 1, 2, and 3 -- Falstaff -- RIchard III -- What to Look for in Richard III -- Facts About Richard III -- Ricardian Abuse -- The Richard III Society -- Edmund Kean's Richard -- On Playing Richard III -- Olivier's Richard III -- John Waller: Swordplay and Dueling -- Prose and Verse -- Shakespeare's Vocabulary -- Shakespeare's Characters -- On Quoting Shakespeare -- Shakespeare Abused: "Full of Wise Saws and Modern Instances" -- The Problem Plays: Troilus and Cressida -- What to Look For In Troilus and Cressida -- A Glossary of Shakespearean Invective -- The Unfriendly Shakespeare -- Jan Kott -- Is Shakespeare Still Our Contemporary? -- Sonnet Boom -- "Come Kiss Me, Sweet and Twenty, Youth's A Stuff Will Not Endure" -- The Authorship Question -- The Stratfordian Rebuttal -- Edward de Vere, Seventeenth Earl of Oxfor -- Charlton Ogburn -- Claimant or Pretender? -- Codes, Ciphers, and Cryptograms -- Shakespearean Tragedy: The Revenge Play -- Titus Andrionicus -- Peter Brook's Titus Andronicus -- Romeo and Juliet -- What to Look For In Romeo and Juliet -- On First sitting Down to Read (or See) Hamlet -- Hamlet -- Ophelia -- Hametology -- Hamlet Controversies -- Jan Kott on Hamlet -- Melchior Goes to Elsinore -- Parodies, Adaptations, and Versions of Hamlet, or, Hamlet For Hames -- Charles Marowitz -- Improbable Shakespeare -- Novelty Shakespeare -- Othello -- What to Look For In Othello -- Othello: Shakespeare's Most Intense Play -- Iago -- David Suchet -- Smother, Stifle, or Strangle? -- Charles Marowitz's An Othello -- Paul Robeson's Othello -- Charles "Roc" Dutton on Ira Aldridge, American Black Theatre, and Othello -- Great Shakespearean Moments in American History -- King Lear -- What to Look For In King Lear -- Comments on Lear -- Tony Church on Playing Lear -- Lear's Fool -- The Fool in History -- "The Wren Goes To't" -- Robert Brustein -- Macbeth -- The Porter Scene -- The Curse of "The Scottish Play" -- Dame Judith Anderson -- International Shakespeare -- Antony and Cleopatra -- What to Look For In Antony and Cleopatra -- Comments on Antony and Cleopatra -- The Tragicomic Romances: The Tempest -- Caliban -- A Restropective Look: "Our Revels Now Are Ended" -- The Spin-offs: Shakespeare and Music -- Great Moments in Bardolatry -- Stratford-upon-Avon and the Shakespeare Industry -- The Ireland Affair -- "Shall I Die?" (By All Means!) -- Attention, Shakespeare Shoppers! -- A Select Filmography -- Spoofs, Offshoots, Parodies, and Adaptations -- Shakespeare and Television -- The BBC Time/Life Series -- Selected Bibliography -- Personal Interviews -- Index |
| Summary |
The Friendly Shakespeare is written for people who think Shakespeare is, to quote Laurence Olivier, "not for the likes of them." It includes the major plays - histories, tragedies, comedies, and problem plays - but in between you'll find the real plot of Hamlet; raging controversies - like just who was Shakespeare - and was he actually Queen Elizabeth I? And who was the Dark Lady, anyway?; a look at Shakespeare on film - and a complete filmography; "the most insipid, ridiculous play I ever saw" (Samuel Pepys), and other quotes from Shakespeare haters (like Mark Twain and George Bernard Shaw); Shakespeare's ambiguous sexuality - or, was the Bard gay?; a half-dozen ways to say "Scram!" in Elizabethan English, and a glossary of Shakespearean invective; a look at the Elizabethan stage; practical advice from actors on how to read Shakespeare aloud and curious Shakespeareana about the numerous cranks and eccentrics drawn to Shakespeare throughout the ages |
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What's so friendly about William Shakespeare? Haven't we all spent dutiful hours trying to make ourselves enjoy reading the Bard - with mixed results? The Friendly Shakespeare will change all that - it's a book that will delight anyone who ever shuddered at a soliloquy or nodded off the moment an actor said "doth." It's crammed full of solid but never simplistic information; it's intelligent without being overly intellectual, but with the depth to satisfy even those for whom reading Shakespeare is already a delight |
| Analysis |
Shakespeare, 1564-1616 Outlines, syllabi, etc |
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Shakespeare, 1564-1616 Study and teaching |
| Notes |
"A Winokur/Boates book." |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 531-536) and index |
| Subject |
Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Criticism and interpretation.
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Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Outlines, syllabi, etc.
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Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 -- Study and teaching.
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| LC no. |
92054080 |
| ISBN |
0670844470 |
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