埃玛·史密斯的这部《威廉·莎士比亚》用独特的视角，直接抓住戏剧艺术的主要特点——剧中人物、莎剧的演出、莎剧的文本、剧中语言、戏剧结构、莎剧故事的来源、剧作与时代的关系——直接插入，通过分析莎士比亚的多部剧作，在回顾总结历代学者评论家研究成果的基础上，阐述了她个人对莎剧的看法。因此，埃玛·史密斯的《威廉·莎士比亚》是一部个性化很强的导读。在每一章的结尾处，作者还加上了一份参考书目——不是单纯地列上书名，而是加上了对每本书的详细点评，这对读者进一步探讨这个问题会有很大的帮助。

本书从莎剧的人物、演出、文本、语言、结构、素材以及与时代的关系七大视角出发，直接抓住了莎剧艺术的主要特点，积极将读者导入莎剧，论述有理有据，蹊径独辟，证明了莎剧文本的研究大有创新的空间。

“……一部深入浅出、令人耳目一新的莎剧指南。”

List of figures and tables

Preface

Chapter 1 Character

 Juliet's balcony, Verona

 Shakespeare's realism？

 Shakespeare's 'unreal' characters

 Reading Shakespeare's characters on the page

 Embodying Shakespeare's characters on stage

 Doubling on the early modern stage

 Writing for particular actors

 Falstaff：character as individual or type？

 Naming and individuality

 Characters as individuals or as inter-relationships

 Character：interior or exterior？

 Character：where next？

Chapter 2 Performance

 Measure for Measure. staging silence

 ‘Going back to the text’：the challenge of performance

 Performance interpretations：The Taming of the Shrew

 Topical performance：the plays in different theatrical contexts

 Citing performances

 Using film

 Using film comparatively：Macbeth

 Hamlet:‘To be or not to be’

 Adaptations：Shakespearean enough？

 Performance：where next？

Chapter 3 Texts

 Shakespeare's hand

 So what did Shakespeare write？

 Stage to page

 Quartos and Folio

 Editing as interpretation

 The job of the editor：the example of Richard Ⅱ

 Stage directions

 Speech prefixes

 The job of the editor：the example of KingLear

 Texts：where next？

Chapter 4 Language

 ‘In a double sense’(Macbeth 5.7.50)

 Did anyone really talk like that？

 Playing with language

 Language of the play/language of the person

 Prose and verse

 Linguistic shifts：i Henry Ⅳ

 Shakespeare's verse

 Linguistic variation：A Midsummer Night's Dream

 Language：where next？

Chapter 5 Structure

 Finding the heart of the play

 Shakespeare's genres：dynamic, not static

 Tragedy and comedy

 Tragedy-expanding the genre

 Comedy-expanding the genre

 History：is this a fixed genre？

 Structuring scenes：Much Ado About Nothing

 Juxtaposing scenes, activating ironies：Henry V

 Showing v. telling

 Structure：where next？

Chapter 6 Sources

 Antony and Cleopatra and Plutarch

 Originality：was Shakespeare a plagiarist？

 Shakespeare at work：the intentional fallacy？

 The source bites back：Romeo and Juliet and The Winter's Tale

 The strong poet？ King Lear

 Sources：where next？

Chapter 7 History

 Politic picklocks：interpreting topically

 History plays：political Shakespeare？

 History plays：Shakespeare as propagandist？

 Hamlet as history play？

 Jacobean patronage：King Lear and Macbeth

 Historical specificity：gender roles

 Race and Othello

 History：where next？

Bibliography

Index