An overview of Shakespeare's theatrical career, commentary on past productions, and a scene-by-scene analysis accompany Shakespeare's play about unrequited love and mistaken identity.

Without question the most influential, brilliant and beloved writer in the English language, William Shakespeare began as a simple poet and would-be actor, but after joining the Lord Chamberlain's Men acting company in London (later, the King's Men), he began writing plays and his works would go on to become the most performed theatrical pieces on the planet. It is difficult to encapsulate the scope and impact of Shakespeare's writings. Entire...

"SIGNATURE SHAKESPEARE SERIES Featuring remarkable laser-cut paper designs throughout, this new series offers stunning presentations of Shakespeare's plays, complete with scholarship, commentary, notes, and illustrated essays about Shakespeare's language and performances of the play. It's a keepsake package worthy of the greatest, and most loved, playwright in the English language. Each volume in the Signature Shakespeare series includes: - Illustration:...

"This edition of Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice reprints the Bevington edition of the play accompanied by four sets of thematically arranged primary documents and illustrations designed to facilitate many different approaches to Shakespeare's play and the early modern culture out of which the play emerges. The texts include maps, woodcuts, sermons, statutes, early modern documents reflecting Christian attitudes toward Jews and Jewish reactions...