Dimensions
130 x 197 x 30mm
"A heap of jewels, unstrung and unpolished" was Nahum Tate's opinion of 'King Lear' when he set about adapting it for the stage in 1681. Along with William Davenant, John Dryden, Colley Cibber and a host of others, he made Shakespeare fit for the tastes of a new age and in doing so created plays which, although reviled by later critics, enjoyed long-lasting theatrical success.
These Restoration versions of Shakespeare's plays are interesting in their own right and as they reflect their society's attitudes towards political issues, marriage, gender and the relations between nature and culture. The five plays - Cibber's 'Richard III'; Dryden and Davenant's 'The Tempest'; Dryden's 'All for Love'; Tate's 'King Lear'; and the lesser-known 'Sauny the Scot', or 'The Taming of the Shrew' by Lacy - illustrate the very differing attitudes towards the process of adaptation.
A unique edition, with introduction, notes, selected criticism, plot summaries and a chronology of the playwrights' lives and times.
