William Shakespeare and Others: Collaborative Plays

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Developed in partnership with The Royal Shakespeare Company, this is the first edition for over a hundred years of the fascinatingly varied body of plays that has become known as 'The Shakespeare Apocrypha'. As a companion to their award-winning The RSC Shakespeare: Complete Works , renowned scholars Jonathan Bate and Eric Rasmussen, supported by a dynamic team of co-editors, now provide a fascinating insight into ten plays in which Shakespeare may have had a hand. A magisterial essay by Will Sharpe provides a comprehensive account of the Authorship and Attribution of each play.

Combining outstanding textual scholarship with elegant writing and design, this unique collection allows us to revisit the question of what is Shakespearean. It is an indispensable book for students, teachers, performers, scholars and lovers of Shakespeare everywhere.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

This collection of plays, drawn from the "Shakespeare Apocrypha," asks if Shakespeare contributed at least some elements to works not in the Shakespearean canon. In evaluating candidates, Bate (Univ. of Warwick, UK) and Rasmussen (Univ. of Nevada) tread the ground between Victorian inclusiveness and modernist scrupulousness vis-a-vis the Apocrypha. Obviously eccentric candidates such as Edmund Ironside are excluded. Even the likeliest candidate, Edward III, is treated skeptically, as lacking the "human detail and historiographical skepticism" found in the known history plays. Even though Locrine bears the initials "W. S." on its title page, its "ghastly ghostly poetry" disqualifies it as a play that bridges the settings of Titus Andronicus and Cymbeline. Arden of Feversham, A Yorkshire Tragedy, and The London Prodigal deal with urban, middle-class milieus not typically Shakespearean. Will Sharpe (who contributes "Authorship and Attribution") concedes that the relationship of Lewis Theobald's Double Falsehood to Shakespeare's lost Cardenio is unproven. Also included: The Spanish Tragedy, likely by Thomas Kyd, Mucedorus, Thomas Lord Cromwell (of relevance to Hilary Mantel fans), Sir Thomas More (a history play/city play, unquestionably partially by Shakespeare). Helpful tables at the beginning of each play give readers the basis to decide authorship issues for themselves. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty. N. Birns The New School