Titus Andronicus

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

The New Cambridge Shakespeare appeals to students worldwide for its up-to-date scholarship and emphasis on performance. The series features line-by-line commentaries and textual notes on the plays and poems. Introductions are regularly refreshed with accounts of new critical, stage and screen interpretations. For this second edition of Titus Andronicus Sue Hall-Smith has written a new section on recent scholarship and important contemporary performances of the play. The edition retains the text prepared by Alan Hughes, based on the first quarto and supplemented by crucial additions and stage directions from the Folio. In the introduction, Hughes contradicts the historically popular view that Titus Andronicus is a poor play of dubious authorship. Joining the growing ranks of critics who take the play seriously, Hughes applauds its thematic unity and grim humour, and demonstrates that it is the work of a brilliant stage craftsman, confident in his mastery of space, movement and verse.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• List of illustrations (p. vi)
• Preface (p. vii)
• List of abbreviations and conventions (p. viii)
• Introduction (p. 1)
• Date (p. 1)
• Sources (p. 6)
• Authorship (p. 10)
• Early stage history (p. 12)
• The Longleat manuscript (p. 14)
• From the Restoration to the nineteenth century (p. 22)
• Twentieth-century performance and criticism (p. 29)
• Recent stage, film and critical interpretations by Sue Hall-Smith (p. 45)
• Note on the text (p. 61)
• List of characters (p. 66)
• The Play (p. 67)
• Textual analysis (p. 159)
• Appendix 1 Titus Andronicus at the Rose (p. 167)
• Appendix 2 Performance by a small company (p. 174)
• Reading list (p. 176)

Excerpt provided by Syndetics