Romeo and Juliet (Illustrated Edition)

New York; Harper and Brothers. Edited with Notes by William J.

We appreciate the impact a good book can have. We all like the idea of saving a bit of cash, so when we found out how many good quality used boo This is a limited first edition.

Third Series

The interior is in fine condition. The pages are tight and clean. There are no tears or marks. The cover is in very good condition. There is fading of the spine.

This includes a beautiful dust jacket over a clothbound hardback with gold gilt on top, side and bottom edges. You also may like to try some of these bookshops , which may or may not sell this item. Separate different tags with a comma. To include a comma in your tag, surround the tag with double quotes.

Skip to content Skip to search. Published Cambridge [England] ; New York: Cambridge University Press, Language English View all editions Prev Next edition of Author Shakespeare, William, Other Authors Gibson, Rex. Series Cambridge school Shakespeare Shakespeare, William, Subjects Shakespeare, William, -- Criticism and interpretation.

Romeo, Fictitious character -- Juvenile drama. Shakespeare, William -- Romeo and Juliet -- Problems, exercises, etc. Vendetta -- Italy -- Verona -- Drama. Families -- Italy -- Verona -- Drama. English literature -- History and criticism. William Shakespeare -- -- Romeo and Juliet. Juliet Fictitious character -- Juvenile drama. Young adult drama, English.

Romeo in flight after killing Tybalt in a brawl between the two warring houses of Verona. In itself this is a vivid presentation of action, but its importance goes further. Coming at the outset of the play, it suggests it to be a tragedy of action and dynastic conflict, not one of personal loss. The new reader may also find it puzzling, since it relates to an event from the third act, not the first above which it appears, so it does not convey an immediate, chronological involvement in the play.

Images in the pages that follow adopt different stances, producing different reading experiences.

About Romeo and Juliet

Some address passages more directly. O then I see Queen Mab hath been with you. It is almost perverse in its rejection of both the language of the speech and of the nature of theatrical illustration, the image showing neither the grotesque fantastic of the text nor any episode of immediate, pure, theatrical action.

Its effect rested on some extremely elaborate stage design by William Telbin, which allowed the actor to descend into the tomb on an immense staircase of more than 40 steps, a literal descensus averni which functioned as a powerful, undisclosed symbolic preparation for the climax of the play. The Irving Shakespeare rejects this completely, and the text gives no mention of the great descent in its stage direction, and instead offers, on the opposite page, an image of the Friar hurrying to the tomb Figure 2.

The placing of the two elements hastens the conclusion of the play, rather than delaying it, as does the long descent in the production. When compared, the two versions represent two quite different constructions of dramatic rhythm, one in the theatre working through action and design, the other functioning in the printed book through careful structuring of verbal and visual mise-en-page.

The final image Figure 3 further defines the relation between production and print. Its accuracy is suggested by its resemblance to written descriptions of the scene, and to other visual presentations such as that in the Dramatic Notes of the following year Entry for March , p. Such tableaux were often constructed to imitate famous paintings or, where this was not possible, to attempt the kind of composition and lighting found in paintings, often by Old Masters, to impart dignity to the action through an association with high art.

The result in the printed edition is a bewildering fusion of genres and impulses: Further complication is added by the text at this point.

Silence; the tableau held; curtain. What are the implications of all these intersections and transmediations on the configuration of the play that the edition offers? It is clear, I think, that this is not simply an acting edition, either as a record of one performance or a preparation for another, although it certainly leans towards such forms.