All the principal duels in Shakespeare's plays are outlined and explained. The logic underlying each of the violent conflicts is discussed, together with textual references, to place them within the contxt of the play. Sample choreography is offered.

A vital resource for scholars, students and actors, this book contains glosses and quotes for over 14,000 words that could be misunderstood by or are unknown to a modern audience. Displayed panels look at such areas of Shakespeare's language as greetings, swear-words and terms of address. Plot summaries are included for all Shakespeare's plays and on the facing page is a unique diagramatic representation of the relationships within each play.

Swords of Good Men--the first volume Snorri Kristjansson's Vhlhalla Saga--in is a raucous and gripping fantasy adventure set in Viking Norway, where plundering and pillaging are a way of life and creature comforts rarely exceed a mug of sour mead. To weary Viking Ulfar Thormodsson, the town of Stenvik is the penultimate stop on what has been a long and perilous journey. It has been particularly challenging for Thormodsson, who has been charged with protecting the life of his high-born cousin. Having travelled the world for two years, all he wants is to go home--but Stenvik awaits. After coming ashore, Thormodsson meets the beautiful and tragic Lilja, who immediately captures his heart. Stenvik is also home to solitary blacksmith Audun Arngrimsson, whose past hides many dark secrets. Soon, the conflict brewing between two factions of dangerous and determined men of the town threatens to sweep all of them, natives and visitors alike, into the jaws of war. As the Vikings learn, King Olav is marching on Stenvik from the east, determined to bring the White Christ to the masses at the point of his sword - even as a host of bloodthirsty raiders led by a mysterious woman sails from the north. Thormodsson and his companions will soon learn that in this conflict between the Old Gods and the new, there are enemies everywhere - outside the walls of Stenvik as well as within. Swords of Good Men features a memorable cast of original characters and is driven by non-stop action and a clever sense of humor. Kristjansson deftly and elegantly weaves Norse mythology and history with fantasy in a novel that offers not only a good dose of bloody Viking feuding, but intrigue and romance.

Paying close attention to the performance conditions in the Elizabethan theatre, Edelman (English, Edith Cowan U., Western Australia) explores how Shakespeare's many battle scenes, duels, and single combats would have been presented by his own company. He draws on the whole range of plays to argue that such scenes reinforce poetic and dramatic themes, rather than merely provide a popular spectacle for the crowd. Distributed in the US by St. Martin's Press. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

My Cue to Fight is the first book of its kind to provide an in-depth examination of how the greatest playwright in the English language employed not only psychological brutality but also physical violence throughout his works. Written ideally for theatrical stage directors, fight directors, intimacy consultants, and actors as a technical scene-by-scene breakdown in staging combat during production of these plays, this publication also is for Shakespeare enthusiasts who want to learn more about the blood, sweat, and viscera hidden just underneath the poetry. A writer utilises violence, like song or dance, in moments where the story requires more than just words. But addressing how the violence will be staged tends either to be neglected or utterly gratuitous, both of which serve to separate the audience from the story and kill the whole venture. The answer rests in approaching violence the same way we do scenework. The plays of William Shakespeare seek to engage audiences with all of the characters' blood, tears, sweat, and guts. These works are not flowery poems meant to be mumbled in a classroom, or histrionically declaimed in frilly costumes. There is nothing light and fluffy about 'rape' and 'murder's rages', or 'carving' someone as a dish fit for the gods, or fighting till from one's bones one's 'flesh be hacked'. Making matters more complicated is the ambiguity and sometimes even complete lack of stage directions. Modern texts typically possess clear directions whenever violence is to occur in the action but playscripts were quite different four centuries ago. Such denotations were both rare and inconsistent in Elizabethan and Jacobean printings. The potential violence we will examine is not appropriate for all productions or scene partners. We're here to question and inspire rather than provide catch-all solutions. Actors, directors, fight directors, and intimacy consultants must work together to find the most effective way for their production to communicate the playwright's story to an audience.