Table of Contents

List of illustrations     xii
Acknowledgements     xiii
Introduction     1
Why Shakespeare studies changed     1
Did Shakespeare really mean all this?     3
How to use this book     4
This book outlines only one way of studying Shakespeare     7
Understanding the text     9
Shakespeare's language (1)     11
Writing for a theatre audience     11
Shakespeare's audiences     12
Changes in vocabulary     14
Registers of language     18
Balance and antithesis     21
Comparisons, images and analogies     22
Play-texts in Shakespeare's time     23
The Great Chain of Being and radical politics     29
Shakespeare's language (2)     31
Verse and prose     31
Verse     34
Kings and queens     41
Rhetoric     44
Some rhetorical figures and tropes     45
Social mobility     51
Types of stage action     55
Early modern views on theatre     57
Representation on the early modern stage     58
Reflexivity     60
Women and sex     65
The plays in performance     71
Performance then     75
Playhouses     78
Homosexuality in Shakespeare's time     85
Performance now     88
Shakespeare on film     105
How do you film Shakespeare?     105
Hamlet in contexts: Kenneth Branagh (1996) and Michael Almereyda (2000)     109
Reworking the text on film: Twelfth Night (2003) and Ten Things I Hate about You (1999)     117
Shakespeare videos and DVDs     124
The genres     129
What is genre?     131
Theatre companies     132
Classification by genre     133
Shakespeare's plays     135
Understanding comedy: The Taming of the Shrew, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Measure for Measure, The Merchant of Venice and Twelfth Night     139
Comedy and gender: The Taming of the Shrew     143
Comedy and power: A Midsummer Night's Dream and Measure for Measure     150
London     160
Comedy and utopia: The Merchant of Venice     164
Comedy and performance: Twelfth Night     169
Understanding history: King Richard II, King Henry IV Part I and King Henry V     175
History and history      176
Religion     178
History and power     190
History and women     198
Image patterns in the history plays     203
Understanding tragedy: Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth and Othello     208
Tragedy and history     210
Tragedy and power     220
Tragedy and gender     230
Tragedy, theatre and ethics     235
Understanding romance: The Winter's Tale and The Tempest     241
Romance and gender     242
Romance and utopia     255
Conclusion     264
Chronology     266
Glossary     269
References     272
Index     283