The RSC Shakespeare: The Complete Works

"The text of any Shakespeare play is a living negotiable entity: scholarship and theatre practice work together to keep the plays alive and vividly present." - Greg Doran, RSC Artistic Director Emeritus
Developed in partnership with the Royal Shakespeare Company, this Complete Works of William Shakespeare combines exemplary textual scholarship with beautiful design. Curated by expert editors Sir Jonathan Bate and Professor Eric Rasmussen, the text in this collection is based on the iconic 1623 First Folio: the first and original Complete Works lovingly assembled by Shakespeare's fellow actors, and the version of Shakespeare's text preferred by many actors and directors today.
This stunning revised edition goes further to present Shakespeare's plays as they were originally intended - as living theatre to be enjoyed and performed on stage. Along with new colour photographs from a vibrant range of RSC productions, a new Stage Notes feature documenting the staging choices in 100 RSC productions showcases the myriad ways in which Shakespeare's plays can be brought to life.
Now featuring the entire range of Shakespeare's plays, poems and sonnets, this edition is expanded to include both The Passionate Pilgrim and A Lover's Complaint. Along with Bate's excellent general introduction and short essays, this collection includes a range of aids to the reader such as on-page notes explaining unfamiliar terms and key facts boxes providing plot summaries and additional helpful context. A Complete Works for the 21st century, this versatile and highly collectable edition will inspire students, theatre practitioners and lovers of Shakespeare everywhere.

Jonathan Bate is Foundation Professor of Environmental Humanities at Arizona State University, USA.
Eric Rasmussen is a Professor and Chair of the English department at the University of Nevada, Reno, USA.

Preface to Shakespeare: A Second Edition, Jonathan
Bate
The First Folio after 400 years
The 'Second Folio' of the RSC Shakespeare
General Introduction, 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
Cult and Heresy
The Great Feast of Languages
The First Folio Restored
User's Guide
Preliminary pages of the First Folio
Foreword, Greg Doran, Artistic Director Emeritus, Royal Shakespeare
Company
PLATES
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE: COMPLETE WORKS with
Introductions and Key Facts, Jonathan Bate
COMEDIES
The Tempest
The Two Gentlemen of Verona
The Merry Wives of Windsor
Measure for 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, William Shakespeare and George
Wilkins
The Two Noble Kinsmen, William Shakespeare and John
Fletcher
POEMS AND SONNETS
Venus and Adonis
The Rape of Lucrece
The Passionate Pilgrim
'To the Queen'
'Let the Bird of Loudest Lay' (also known as 'The Phoenix
and Turtle')
Shakespeare's Sonnets
'A Lover's Complaint'
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