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Heracles and Other Plays
By Euripides. 2002
Heracles/ Iphigenia Among the Taurians/ Helen/ Ion/ Cyclops: Of these plays, only 'Heracles' truly belongs in the tragic sphere with…
its presentation of underserved suffering and divine malignity. The other plays flirt with comedy and comic themes. Their plots are ironic and complex with deception and elusion eventually leading to reconciliation between mother and son in 'Ion', brother and sister in 'Iphigenia', and husband and wife in 'Helen'. The comic vein is even stronger in the satyric'Cyclops' in which the giant's inebriation and subsequent violence are treated as humorous. Together, these plays demonstrate Euripides' challenge to the generic boundaries of Athenian drama.Henry VIII
By William Shakespeare. 1971
Conspiracies and intrigue are rife in the court of Henry VIII as a Duke is executed for treason, having been…
tricked by the Cardinal. And when the King falls in love with Anne Bullen and decides to divorce his wife, he causes an irrevocable rift with the Catholic Church. After the King's secret marriage to Anne courtiers fall in and out of favour and deaths abound, with far-reaching consequences.Henry VI Part Two
By William Shakespeare. 1981
Henry VI is tricked into marrying Margaret - lover of the Earl of Suffolk, who hopes to rule the kingdom…
through her influence. There is one great obstacle in Suffolk's path, however - the noble Lord Protector, who he slyly orders to be murdered. Discovering this betrayal, Henry banishes Suffolk, but with his Lord Protector gone the unworldly young King must face his greatest challenge: impending Civil War and the rising threat of the House of York.Henry VI Part Three
By William Shakespeare. 1981
Henry VI Part III is the third of William Shakespeare's plays set during the lifetime of King Henry VI of…
England, and prepares the ground for one of his best-known and most controversial plays: the tragedy of King Richard III (Richard III of England). It follows on from Henry VI, part 1 and Henry VI, part 2.Henry VI Part One
By William Shakespeare. 1981
After the death of Henry V, the French revolt and threaten to reclaim their country from English rule. Guided by…
his Lord Protector, the young King Henry VI journeys to Paris to reaffirm his rule over France. But while Joan of Arc battles the British abroad, discontent is also breeding at home, between the two ancient Houses of York and Lancaster.Henry V
By William Shakespeare. 1968
'At one and the same time the greatest of all works of English patriotism and a searing critique of warfare'…
Jonathan BateYoung King Henry wages war on France. Tainted by his family's past crimes and with enemies among his own men, he must face the difficult responsibilities of kingship, unite his country and rouse his 'band of brothers' to battle at Agincourt. An heroic coming-of-age story and a work of stirring patriotic oratory, Henry V also has darker undercurrents that ultimately question the price of military victory.Used and Recommended by the National TheatreGeneral Editor Stanley WellsEdited by A. R. Humphreys with an Introduction by Ann KaegiHenry V
By A. Humphreys, William Shakespeare. 1968
Shakespeare's immutable history of Henry's victory over the French at Agincourt and the subsequent peace between the two nations is…
also a study of war and kingship. From a wild youth, Henry comes to embody all of the kingly virtues: courage, justice, integrity and honour. Ironically these qualities are brought to the fore by the realities of war. Written at the end of the life of Elizabeth I, Henry V told the British people that with strong leadership, they had little to fear at a time of uncertainty.Hamlet
By William Shakespeare. 1996
'The Mona Lisa of literature' T. S. EliotIn Shakespeare's verbally dazzling and eternally enigmatic exploration of conscience, madness and the…
nature of humanity, a young prince meets his father's ghost in the middle of the night, who accuses his own brother - now married to his widow - of murdering him. The prince devises a scheme to test the truth of the ghost's accusation, feigning wild insanity while plotting revenge. But his actions soon begin to wreak havoc on innocent and guilty alike.Used and Recommended by the National TheatreGeneral Editor Stanley WellsEdited by T. J. B. SpencerIntroduction by Alan SinfieldGreek Tragedy: The Persians, The Seven Against Thebes, The Suppliant Maidens, Prometheus Bound (Greek Tragedy In New Translations Ser.)
By Aeschylus, Euripides, Sophocles. 2003
Agememnon is the first part of the Aeschylus's Orestian trilogy in which the leader of the Greek army returns from…
the Trojan war to be murdered by his treacherous wife Clytemnestra. In Sophocles' Oedipus Rex the king sets out to uncover the cause of the plague that has struck his city, only to disover the devastating truth about his relationship with his mother and his father.Medea is the terrible story of a woman's bloody revenge on her adulterous husband through the murder of her own children.Frogs and Other Plays
By Aristophanes. 1964
The master of ancient Greek comic drama, Aristophanes combined slapstick, humour and cheerful vulgarity with acute political observations. In The…
Frogs, written during the Peloponnesian War, Dionysus descends to the Underworld to bring back a poet who can help Athens in its darkest hour, and stages a great debate to help him decide between the traditional wisdom of Aeschylus and the brilliant modernity of Euripides. The clash of generations and values is also the object of Aristophanes’ satire in The Wasps, in which an old-fashioned father and his loose-living son come to blows and end up in court. And in The Poet and the Women, Euripides, accused of misogyny, persuades a relative to infiltrate an all-women festival to find out whether revenge is being plotted against him.The Frogs (Penguin Little Black Classics)
By Aristophanes. 1964
'Ko-ax, ko-ax, ko-ax!Now listen, you musical twerps,I don't give a damn for your burps!'A biting comedy from the great Ancient…
Greek playwright.One of 46 new books in the bestselling Little Black Classics series, to celebrate the first ever Penguin Classic in 1946. Each book gives readers a taste of the Classics' huge range and diversity, with works from around the world and across the centuries - including fables, decadence, heartbreak, tall tales, satire, ghosts, battles and elephants.Four French Plays: Cinna, The Misanthrope, Andromache, Phaedra
By Jean Racine. 2013
The 'greatest hits' of French classical theatre, in vivid and acclaimed new Penguin translations by John Edmunds and with editorial…
apparatus by Joseph Harris.The plays in this volume - Cinna, The Misanthrope, Andromache and Phaedra - span only thirty-seven years, but make up the defining period of French theatre. In Corneille's Cinna (1640), absolute power is explored in ancient Rome, while Molière's The Misanthrope (1666), the only comedy in this collection, sees its anti-hero outcast for his refusal to conform to social conventions. Here also are two key plays by Racine: Andromache (1667), recounting the tragedy of Hector's widow after the Trojan War, and Phaedre (1677), showing a mother crossing the bounds of love with her son.This translation of Phaedra was originally broadcast on Radio Three with a cast including Prunella Scales and Timothy West, and was praised by playwright Harold Pinter. This is the first time it has been published. The edition also includes an introduction by Joseph Harris, genealogical tables, pronunciation guides, critiques and prefaces, as well as a chronology and suggested further reading.After a varied career as an actor, teacher, and BBC TV national newsreader, John Edmunds became the founder-director of Aberystwyth University's department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies. Joseph Harris is Senior Lecturer at Royal Holloway, University of London and author of Hidden Agendas: Cross-Dressing in Seventeenth-Century France (2005).Four Tragedies and Octavia
By Seneca. 1966
Based on the legends used in Greek drama, Seneca's plays are notable for the exuberant ruthlessness with which disastrous events…
are foretold and then pursued to their tragic and often bloodthirsty ends. Thyestes depicts the menace of an ancestral curse hanging over two feuding brothers, while Phaedra portrays a woman tormented by fatal passion for her stepson. In The Trojan Women, the widowed Hecuba and Andromache await their fates at the hands of the conquering Greeks, and Oedipus follows the downfall of the royal House of Thebes. Octavia is a grim commentary on Nero's tyrannical rule and the execution of his wife, with Seneca himself appearing as an ineffective counsellor attempting to curb the atrocities of the emperor.Electra and Other Plays: Ajax, Women Of Trachis, Electra, And Philoctetes
By Sophocles. 2014
Sophocles’ innovative plays transformed Greek myths into dramas featuring complex human characters, through which he explored profound moral issues. Electra…
portrays the grief of a young woman for her father Agamemnon, who has been killed by her mother’s lover. Aeschylus and Euripides also dramatized this story, but the objectivity and humanity of Sophocles’ version provides a new perspective. Depicting the fall of a great hero, Ajax examines the enigma of power and weakness combined in one being, while the Women of Trachis portrays the tragic love and error of Heracles’ deserted wife Deianeira, and Philoctetes deals with the conflict between physical force and moral strength.Five Revenge Tragedies: The Spanish Tragedy, Hamlet, Antonio's Revenge, The Tragedy of Hoffman, The Revenger's Tragedy
By Thomas Kyd, Thomas Middleton, William Shakespeare, John Marston, Henry Chettle. 2012
As the Elizabethan era gave way to the reign of James I, England grappled with corruption within the royal court…
and widespread religious anxiety. Dramatists responded with morally complex plays of dark wit and violent spectacle, exploring the nature of death, the abuse of power and vigilante justice. In Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy a father failed by the Spanish court seeks his own bloody retribution for his son's murder. Shakespeare's 1603 version of Hamlet creates an avenging Prince of unique psychological depth, while Chettle's The Tragedy of Hoffman is a fascinating reworking of Hamlet's themes, probably for a rival theatre company. In Marston's Antonio's Revenge, thwarted love leads inexorably to gory reprisals and in Middleton's The Revenger's Tragedy, malcontent Vindice unleashes an escalating orgy of mayhem on a debauched Duke for his bride's murder, in a ferocious satire reflecting the mounting disillusionment of the age. Emma Smith's introduction considers the political and religious climate behind the plays and the dramatic conventions within them. This edition includes a chronology, playwrights' biographies and suggestions for further reading.English Mystery Plays
By Peter Happé. 1975
Humour, pathos and suffering, and the culminating drama of the Crucifixion and Resurrection, give these plays a wonderful immediacy. Their…
action was conceived on a cosmic scale and all the enthusiasm and vitality of their writing is retained to this day. The energies of whole communities, notably at Chester, York and Wakefield, were devoted to their production and they were to influence later dramatists significantly. The grand design of the mystery plays was to celebrate the Christian story from 'The Fall of Lucifer' to the 'Judgement Day', and this volume contains thirty-eight plays, forming in itself a composite cycle and including almost all the incidents common to the extant cycles.Faust, Part I: Ein Mythos Und Seine Bearbeitungen (Faust #1)
By Goethe. 2005
Goethe's Faust reworks the late-medieval myth of Dr Faust, a brilliant scholar so disillusioned he resolves to make a contract…
or wager with the devil, Mephistopheles. The devil will do all he asks on Earth and seek to grant him a moment in life so glorious that he will wish it to last for ever. But if Faust does bid the moment stay, he falls to Mephisto and must serve him after death. In this first part of Goethe's great work the embittered thinker and Mephistopheles enter into their agreement, and soon Faust is living a life beyond his study and - in rejuvenated form - winning the love of the charming and beautiful Gretchen. But in this compelling tragedy of arrogance, unfulfilled desire and self-delusion, Faust, served by the devil, heads inexorably towards destruction.Faust: Ein Mythos Und Seine Bearbeitungen (Thrift Editions Ser.)
By Johann Wolfgang Goethe. 2018
The second part of Goethe's masterpiece opens with Faust struggling to recover from the death of his beloved Gretchen. The…
quick-witted demon Mephistopheles soon persuades him to look beyond his sorrow and enter the world of politics and power, but the great scholar is still eager for new sensations, and asks Mephistopheles to reveal Helen of Troy to him in a vision. Overwhelmed by her beauty, Faust demands she be brought back from the underworld - but even this fails to bring him contentment, and his appetite for knowledge remains unsated. Completed a few months before Goethe's death, this rich and allusive work weaves together a wealth of diverse philosophical ideas and influences, reworking the medieval myth of Dr Faustus and speculating upon the search for truth in the Age of Enlightenment.A Doll's House and Other Plays
By Henrik Ibsen. 2016
A Doll's House/Ghosts/Pillars of the Community/An Enemy of the People'Our home has never been anything other than a play-house. I've…
been your doll-wife here, just as at home I was Daddy's doll-child'These four plays established Ibsen as the leading figure in the theatre of his day, sending shockwaves throughout Europe and beyond. A Doll's House scandalized audiences with its free-thinking heroine Nora. Ibsen's even more radical follow-up, Ghosts, exposes family secrets and sexual double-dealing, while Pillars of the Community and An Enemy of the People both explore the hypocrisy and the dark tensions at the heart of society. This new translation, the first to be based on the latest critical edition of Ibsen's works, offers the best version available in English.A new translation by DEBORAH DAWKIN and ERIK SKUGGEVIK With an Introduction by TORE REM General Editor TORE REMThe Duchess of Malfi, The White Devil, The Broken Heart and 'Tis Pity She's a Whore
By John Ford, John Webster. 2014
These four plays, written during the reigns of James I and Charles I, took revenge tragedy in dark and ambiguous…
new directions. In The Duchess of Malfi and The White Devil, John Webster explores the role of women and the problems of power, sex and corruption in the Italian court, creating two unforgettable anti-heroines. In The Broken Heart, John Ford questions the value of emotional repression as his characters attempt to subdue their desires and hatreds in ancient Greece. Finally, Ford's masterpiece 'Tis Pity She's a Whore explores the taboo theme of incest and forbidden lust in a daring reworking of Romeo and Juliet.Jane Kingsley-Smith has edited the plays from the earliest quartos and added invaluable editorial material, including explanatory glosses and a new introduction that discusses how the playwrights explored issues around women, sex, power and violence.JOHN WEBSTER was born in about 1578 in London. He studied law at the Middle Temple before embarking on a career in the theatre, collaborating on many plays with contemporary dramatists. But it was his two solo-authored tragedies, The White Devil (1612) and The Duchess of Malfi (1614), which sealed his reputation. He died in the 1630s.JOHN FORD was born in 1586 in Devon. His early career was wholly concerned with poetry and philosophical works, and it was not until the 1620s that he began collaborating on stage plays. In the late 1620s, he began writing alone, producing the eight plays on which his reputation would be based, including The Broken Heart (1620) and 'Tis Pity She's a Whore (c.1630). Nothing more is known of Ford after the performance of his last play in 1638. JANE KINGSLEY-SMITH completed her PhD at the Shakespeare Institute, Stratford-upon-Avon and is the author of two monographs: Shakespeare's Drama of Exile (2003) and Cupid in Early Modern Literature and Culture (2010). She is a Reader at Roehampton University, London, and a regular guest speaker at Shakespeare's Globe.