Shakespeare William - A dictionary of Shakespeare

STANLEY WELLS
with the assistance of JAMES SHAW

Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP

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Stanley Wells 1998, 2005

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First published 1998
Updated and re-issued in new covers 2005

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ISBN 0192806386 9780192806383

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

This volume is intended as a companion and guide to reading Shakespeares plays and to experiencing them where they belong, in the theatre. The previous version of this work, published as Shakespeare: An Illustrated Dictionary (1978, 2nd edn. 1986), has undergone a thorough revision, and there are many new entries resulting from advances in Shakespeare scholarship and from the constantly changing treatment of the plays in the theatre. Each play has a separate entry giving the basic information about its date, sources, and first publication, followed by a selective account of the history of its theatrical presentation. Other entries are concerned with Shakespeares life, his contemporaries, his interpreters, creative artists who have come under his influence, and other topics likely to interest those who enjoy Shakespeares works, and who want to know more about him and them. Selectivity has been essential. It would have been possible, for example, to fill the volume with entries for Shakespeares theatrical interpreters alone. We have tried to choose the great figures of the past along with those who are most active as Shakespeare performers at present. The section on Further Reading at the end of the book points to additional sources of information. An asterisk indicates that there is a separate entry in the dictionary for the topic so marked. The volume also includes a finding list of the characters in Shakespeares plays, a conjectural chronology, and a statistical appendix providing interesting facts about Shakespeares work.

Normally, quotations from early printed books and documents are given in modern form. Quotations from Shakespeare are from the Oxford Complete Works, General Editors Stanley Wells and Gary Taylor (1986, etc.). In compiling the many facts for this book, the library staffs of the Shakespeare Institute and Shakespeare Centre, Stratford-upon-Avon, have been a constant help, and we would like to thank Christine Buckley for her scrupulous copy-editing.

S.W.W.
J.S.

The authors and publishers would like to thank the following for permission to reproduce photographs on the pages listed:

The Bodleian Library, University of Oxford: 114 (Malone 389), 148 (Arch Gd. 41), 191 (Arch Ge. 31)

The photographs on pages 13 (C57b42), 64 (C34k1), 126 (ADD MS70438) by permission of the British Library

The College of Arms: 7

The Guildhall Library: 79

Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon: 14, 49.

The photograph on page 101 is reproduced by permission of the Marquess of Bath, Longleat House, Warminster, Great Britain

The photograph on page 27 by courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, London

The Public Record Office: 167

The Royal Shakespeare Company Collection with permission of the Governors of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre: 54

The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust: 28, 44, 45, 55, 92, 121, 146, 169

act-and-scene divisions None of the *quarto editions of Shakespeares plays issued before the First *Folio appeared, in 1623, is divided into scenes, and only one, *Othello, printed in 1622, is divided into acts.

In the Folio, six plays are undivided; *Hamlet is only partially divided; eleven plays are divided into acts only; the remaining eighteen are divided into acts and scenes. Some of the divided plays are ones which had been printed without divisions in quarto.

For most of its career, Shakespeares company seems not to have observed act-breaks, though they may have been introduced after the acquisition of the *Blackfriars Theatre. Evidence such as the placing of the *Choruses in *Henry V and *Pericles shows that Shakespeare was conscious of the conventional five-act structure.

The divisions marked in modern editions are basically those established by the early eighteenth-century editors, Nicholas *Rowe and Alexander *Pope.

ACTER (A Center for Theater, Education and Research) Founded in 1967 by Homer Swander, producing small-scale productions, often featuring *Royal Shakespeare Company actors, touring throughout the USA.

actresses No professional actresses appeared on the English stage until after the Restoration, in 1660. Female roles in Shakespeares plays were written for male actors, usually, if not invariably, boys. (see BOY ACTORS.)

Admirals Men A theatre company, known first as Lord Howards Men, under the patronage from 1576/7 to 1603 of Charles, Lord Howard, first Earl of Nottingham, who became Lord High Admiral in 1585. On *James Is accession, they became Prince Henrys Men (160312), and after that the Elector Palatines, or Palsgraves, Men (161325).

They were the main rivals to Shakespeares company, the *Lord Chamberlains (later Kings) Men. From about 1589, perhaps earlier, to 1597, and 1600 to 1605, their leading actor was Edward *Alleyn, Richard *Burbages chief rival. Their principal financier was Philip *Henslowe, who owned the Rose Theatre, built in 1587, where the company mainly played from 1594 till they moved to his *Fortune Theatre in 1600. This burned down in 1621. The company, greatly harmed, survived only till 1625.

advice to the Players, Hamlets Hamlets speeches to the actors, III. ii. 145.

Age of Kings, An A BBC television serial based on Shakespeares English history plays (see HISTORIES), directed by Peter Dews, and transmitted in 1961.