Contents
Preface
General Introduction by Jonathan Bate
Shakespeare our Perennial Contemporary
Shakespeare's Debut: The 'Upstart Crow
The Back Story: Shakespeare of Stratford
The Playhouses
Plague and Poetry
The Lord Chamberlain's Man
The Ensemble at Work
'Dangerous Matter': Politics and Religion
The King's Man
The Great Feast of Languages
Cult and Heresy
The First Folio Restored
User's Guide
Preliminary Pages of the First Folio
Foreword by Michael Boy& Artistic Director, Royal Shakespeare Company
PLATES
William Shakespeare: Complete Works
with Introductions and 'Key Facts' by Jonathan Bate
Comedies
The Tempest
The Two Gentlemen of Verona
The Merry Wives of Windsor
Measure tbr Measure
The Comedy of Errors
Much Ado about Nothing
Love's Labour's Lost
A Midsummer Night's Dream
The Merchant of Venice
As You Like It
The Taming of the Shrew
All's Well that Ends Well
Twelfth Night, or What You Will
The Winter's Tale
Histories
The Life and Death of King John
The Life and Death of King Richard the Second
The First Part of Henry the Fourth. with the Life and
Death of Henry surnamed Hotspur
The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, containing his
Death and the Coronation of King Henry the Fifth
The Life of Henry the Fifth
The First Part of Henry the Sixth
The Second Part of Henry the Sixth, with the Death of the Good Duke Humphrey
The Third Part of Henry the Sixth, with the Death of the Duke of York
The Tragedy of Richard the Third, with the Landing of
Earl Richmond and the Battle at Bosworth Field
The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eighth
Tragedies
The Tragedy of Troilus and Cressida
The Tragedy of Coriolanus
The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus
The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet
The Life of Timon of Athens
The Tragedy of Julius Caesar
The Tragedy of Macbeth
The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
The Tragedy of King Lear
The Tragedy of Othello. the Moor of Venice
The Tragedy of Antony and Cleopatra
The Tragedy of Cymbeline
Plays not in the First Folio
Pericles. Prince of Tyre. by William Shakespeare and George Wilkins
The Two Noble Kinsmen, by William Shakespeare and John Fletcher
Poems and Sonnets
Venus and Adonis
The Rape of Lucrece
'To the Queen'
'Let the Bird of Loudest Lay' (also known as 'The Phoenix and Turtle')
Shakespeare's Sonnets
A Scene for Sir Thomas More
(introduction, transcription and modernized text by Eric Rasmussen)
Charts
Shakespeare's Works: A Conjectural Chronology
The Houses of Lancaster and York: A Genealogy
Kings and Queens of England: From the History Plays to Shakespeare's Lifetime
The History Behind the Histories: A Chronology
The History Behind the Tragedies: A Chronology
Acknowledgements and Picture Credits
Alphabetical Index of Plays and Poems