William Shakespeare's Macbeth: A Sourcebook

Front Cover
Alexander Leggatt
Taylor & Francis, 2006 - 197 pages

William Shakespeare's Macbeth is a timeless tale of love, greed and power, which has given rise to heated debates around such issues as the representation of gender roles, political violence and the dramatisation of evil.

Taking the form of a sourcebook, this guide to Shakespeare's play presents:

  • extensive introductory comment on the contexts, critical history and performance of the text, from publication to present
  • annotated extracts from key contextual documents, reviews, critical works and the text itself
  • cross-references between documents and sections of the guide, in order to suggest links between texts, contexts and criticism
  • suggestions for further reading.

Part of the Routledge Guides to Literature series, this volume is essential reading for all those beginning detailed study of Macbeth and seeking not only a guide to the play, but a way through the wealth of contextual and critical material that surrounds Shakespeare's text.

 

Contents

List of Illustrations
5
Contextual Overview 725
12
Contemporary Documents
25
Critical History
39
Modern Criticism
58
From Stephen Booth King Lear Macbeth Indefinition and Tragedy 1983
74
From Stephen Greenblatt Shakespeare Bewitched 1994
83
Introduction
89
Trevor Nunns Macbeth for Television
113
Introduction
123
Macbeth hesitates Lady Macbeth breaks his reluctance
143
Macbeth and Lady Macbeth react to the murder
150
The witches cauldron the riddling prophecies
162
Lady Macduff and her son
171
Lady Macbeth sleepwalks
177
Recommended Editions of Macbeth
189

From Peter Thomson Shakespeares Theatre 1983
96
From David Garricks adaptation of Macbeth 1744
106

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

About the author (2006)

Alexander Leggatt is Professor of English at University College, University of Toronto. He has published many books and articles on Shakespeare and ahs won an Outstanding Teaching Award from the Faculty of Arts & Science, University of Toronto.

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