A mysterious Israeli who refers to himself by the codename 'Shakespeare,' and who seems to be a former Mossad agent, is either cracking up or cracking the case of a bungled assignment from long ago - one that left his partner and best friend dead and himself in an agony of despair. His only solace: friends in the espionage business tell him the murderer is dead. Now, years later, in another life, Shakespeare spots the murderer on the streets of New York...or does he?

Why are certain words used as insults in Shakespeare's world and what do these words do and say? Shakespeare's plays abound with insults which are more often merely cited than thoroughly studied, quotation prevailing over exploration. The purpose of this richly detailed dictionary is to go beyond the surface of these words and to analyse why and how words become insults in Shakespeare's world. It's an invaluable resource and reference guide for anyone grappling with the complexities and rewards of Shakespeare's inventive use of language in the realm of insult and verbal sparring.

This book is a historical and philosophical meditation on paying back and buying back, that is, it is about retaliation and redemption. It takes the law of the talion - eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth - seriously. In its biblical formulation that law states the value of my eye in terms of your eye, the value of your teeth in terms of my teeth. Eyes and teeth become units of valuation. But the talion doesn't stop there. It seems to demand that eyes, teeth, and lives are also to provide the means of payment. Bodies and body parts, it seems, have a just claim to being not just money, but the first and precisest of money substances. In its highly original way, the book offers a theory of justice, not an airy theory though. It is about getting even in a toughminded, unsentimental, but respectful way. And finds that much of what we take to be justice, honor, and respect for persons requires, at its core, measuring and measuring up.

Shylock, the Jewish moneylender in The Merchant of Venice who famously demands a pound of flesh as security for a loan to his antisemitic tormentors, is one of Shakespeare’s most complex and idiosyncratic characters. With his unsettling eloquence and his varying voices of protest, play, rage, and refusal, Shylock remains a source of perennial fascination. What explains the strange and enduring force of this character, so unlike that of any other in Shakespeare’s plays? Kenneth Gross posits that the figure of Shylock is so powerful because he is the voice of Shakespeare himself. Marvelously speculative and articulate, Gross’s book argues that Shylock is a breakthrough for Shakespeare the playwright, an early realization of the Bard’s power to create dramatic voices that speak for hidden, unconscious, even inhuman impulses—characters larger than the plays that contain them and ready to escape the author’s control. Shylock is also a mask for Shakespeare’s own need, rage, vulnerability, and generosity, giving form to Shakespeare’s ambition as an author and his uncertain bond with the audience. Gross’s vision of Shylock as Shakespeare’s covert double leads to a probing analysis of the character’s peculiar isolation, ambivalence, opacity, and dark humor. Addressing the broader resonance of Shylock, both historical and artistic, Gross examines the character’s hold on later readers and writers, including Heinrich Heine and Philip Roth, suggesting that Shylock mirrors the ambiguous states of Jewishness in modernity. A bravura critical performance, Shylock Is Shakespeare will fascinate readers with its range of reference, its union of rigor and play, and its conjectural—even fictive—means of coming to terms with the question of Shylock, ultimately taking readers to the very heart of Shakespeare’s humanizing genius.

This book will give learners of English the confidence to address people appropriately in a wide variety of situations. It will also help them to understand what is implied when an English speaker uses a particular way of addressing someone. These topics are entirely neglected in most courses and textbooks, and there is no other reference work on the subject. Anyone who is fascinated by words will also find much here of interest. A wealth of historical, sociological and etymological information is set out in a highly readable style. Some 2,000 entries arranged in alphabetical order shed new light on familiar terms of address and present many curiosities. The author gives examples from a wide range of literature, particularly twentieth century novels, and provides an illuminating commentary on them.

Vol. for 1888 includes dramatic directory for Feb.-Dec.; vol. for 1889 includes dramatic directory for Jan.-May.