Between 1660 and 1682 seventeen versions of Shakespeare's plays were made for the newly reopened public theatres in London, and in its three parts 'Restoration Shakespeare: Viewing the Voice' offers a new view of why and how such adaptation was undertaken. Part I considers the seventeenth-century debate about how dramaric poetry works on the mind. Part II offers an analysis of each play with regard to its visual and metaphorical effects. Part III concludes with a review of Shakespeare's reputation in these years, drawing a distinction between what readers and playgoers would have known of him.

Performing Restoration Shakespeare embraces the performative and musical qualities of Restoration Shakespeare (1660–1714), drawing on the expertise of theatre historians, musicologists, literary critics, and - importantly - theatre and music practitioners. The volume advances methodological debates in theatre studies and musicology by advocating an alternative to performance practices aimed at reviving 'original' styles or conventions, adopting a dialectical process that situates past performances within their historical and aesthetic contexts, and then using that understanding to transform them into new performances for new audiences. By deploying these methodologies, the volume invites scholars from different disciplines to understand Restoration Shakespeare on its own terms, discarding inhibiting preconceptions that Restoration Shakespeare debased Shakespeare's precursor texts. It also equips scholars and practitioners in theatre and music with new - and much needed - methods for studying and reviving past performances of any kind, not just Shakespearean ones.

Discusses changing interpretations of Shakespeare and his plays through the centuries, arguing that claims of his uniqueness reflect the characteristics of particular eras and critics more than Shakespeare.

The most important period in the history of English drama is revealed in Alexander Leggatt's challenging account. The author considers English drama from the beginning of Shakespeare's career to the restoration of Charles II. Focusing on Shakespeare and the development of his art, he examines all his major contemporaries: Jonson, Middleton, Webster, Beaumont, Fletcher and Ford. He combines close analysis of specific plays with a broader look at trends within drama.

This short history of Shakespeare in global performance-from the re-opening of London theatres upon the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 to our present multicultural day-provides a comprehensive overview of Shakespeare's theatrical afterlife and introduces categories of analysis and understanding to make that afterlife intellectually meaningful. Written for both the advanced student and the practicing scholar, this work enables readers to situate themselves historically in the broad field of Shakespeare performance studies and equips them with analytical tools and conceptual frameworks for making their own contributions to the field.

Shakespeare has been misread for centuries as having modern ideas about sex and gender.This book shows how in the Restoration and Eighteenth century, Shakespeare's plays and other Renaissance texts were adapted to make them conform to these modern ideas.Through readings of Shakespearean texts, including King Lear, Antony and Cleopatra, and Othello, and other Renaissance drama, the book reveals a sexual world before heterosexuality. Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature Before Heterosexuality shows how revisions and criticism of Renaissance drama contributed to the emergence of heterosexuality.It also shows how changing ideas about status, adultery, friendship, and race were factors in that emergence.

Canonising Shakespeare offers the first comprehensive reassessment of Shakespeare's afterlife as a print phenomenon, demonstrating the crucial role that the book trade played in his rise to cultural pre-eminence. 1640–1740 was the period in which Shakespeare's canon was determined, in which the poems resumed their place alongside the plays in print, and in which artisans and named editors crafted a new, contemporary Shakespeare for Restoration and eighteenth-century consumers. A team of international contributors highlight the impact of individual booksellers, printers, publishers and editors on the Shakespearean text, the books in which it was presented, and the ways in which it was promoted. From radical adaptations of the Sonnets to new characters in plays, and from elegant subscription volumes to cheap editions churned out by feuding publishers, this period was marked by eclecticism, contradiction and innovation as stationers looked to the past and the future to create a Shakespeare for their own times.