Pamela Bickley is an experienced teacher of A-Level and IB students and taught for many years as a Visiting Lecturer at Royal Holloway, University of London, UK.Jenny Stevens has taught English at both pre-university and degree level. She currently combines literature teaching at the City Lit, London, with academic writing, educational consultancy and series editing for Methuen Drama Student Editions.

• Preface to the Revised EditionHow to Use this BookIntroduction1. A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Transformations, Illusions, Festivity2. Much Ado About Nothing: Exploring Language and Gender3. As You Like It: ‘Let the Forest Judge’4. Twelfth Night, Or What You Will: Genderqueer Desires5. Measure for Measure (and its problems...)6. Titus Andronicus: Shakespeare’s Most Violent Play?7. Hamlet: Repeats, Returns, Retellings8. Othello: Sex, Race and Rhetoric9. King Lear: ‘That things might change, or cease’10. Macbeth: Kingship and Witchcraft11. Antony and Cleopatra: The Legendary on Stage12. King Richard II: The Performance of Majesty13. King Richard III: History’s Monster or Charismatic Villain?14. Cymbeline: Moving Across Place, Time and Genres15. The Winter’s Tale: Tyranny, Trials, Time16. The Tempest: Where ‘Thought is free’Linking QuestionsRecommended Open Access Online ResourcesGlossary of Critical Terms Used in this BookAbbreviationsReferencesIndex

The particular strength of Pamela Bickley and Jenny Stevens’ thorough guide to the study of Shakespeare’s plays is its targeting. Their discussion of each of the fourteen plays is framed via the introduction of a theoretical method and an exploration of Shakespeare’s language, thus offering a critical tool-kit aimed squarely and effectively at undergraduates and ambitious sixth formers . . . Bickley and Stevens know their audience and address it clearly and unpatronisingly. Everyone who wants, or is just beginning, to study English literature at university would benefit from this book. (Of the 1st edition)

Pamela Bickley is an experienced teacher of A-Level and IB students and taught for many years as a Visiting Lecturer at Royal Holloway, University of London, UK.Jenny Stevens has taught English at both pre-university and degree level. She currently combines literature teaching at the City Lit, London, with academic writing, educational consultancy and series editing for Methuen Drama Student Editions.

• Preface to the Revised EditionHow to Use this BookIntroduction1. A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Transformations, Illusions, Festivity2. Much Ado About Nothing: Exploring Language and Gender3. As You Like It: ‘Let the Forest Judge’4. Twelfth Night, Or What You Will: Genderqueer Desires5. Measure for Measure (and its problems...)6. Titus Andronicus: Shakespeare’s Most Violent Play?7. Hamlet: Repeats, Returns, Retellings8. Othello: Sex, Race and Rhetoric9. King Lear: ‘That things might change, or cease’10. Macbeth: Kingship and Witchcraft11. Antony and Cleopatra: The Legendary on Stage12. King Richard II: The Performance of Majesty13. King Richard III: History’s Monster or Charismatic Villain?14. Cymbeline: Moving Across Place, Time and Genres15. The Winter’s Tale: Tyranny, Trials, Time16. The Tempest: Where ‘Thought is free’Linking QuestionsRecommended Open Access Online ResourcesGlossary of Critical Terms Used in this BookAbbreviationsReferencesIndex

The particular strength of Pamela Bickley and Jenny Stevens’ thorough guide to the study of Shakespeare’s plays is its targeting. Their discussion of each of the fourteen plays is framed via the introduction of a theoretical method and an exploration of Shakespeare’s language, thus offering a critical tool-kit aimed squarely and effectively at undergraduates and ambitious sixth formers . . . Bickley and Stevens know their audience and address it clearly and unpatronisingly. Everyone who wants, or is just beginning, to study English literature at university would benefit from this book. (Of the 1st edition)

Pamela Bickley is an experienced teacher of A-Level and IB students and taught for many years as a Visiting Lecturer at Royal Holloway, University of London, UK.Jenny Stevens has taught English at both pre-university and degree level. She currently combines literature teaching at the City Lit, London, with academic writing, educational consultancy and series editing for Methuen Drama Student Editions.

• Preface to the Revised EditionHow to Use this BookIntroduction1. A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Transformations, Illusions, Festivity2. Much Ado About Nothing: Exploring Language and Gender3. As You Like It: ‘Let the Forest Judge’4. Twelfth Night, Or What You Will: Genderqueer Desires5. Measure for Measure (and its problems...)6. Titus Andronicus: Shakespeare’s Most Violent Play?7. Hamlet: Repeats, Returns, Retellings8. Othello: Sex, Race and Rhetoric9. King Lear: ‘That things might change, or cease’10. Macbeth: Kingship and Witchcraft11. Antony and Cleopatra: The Legendary on Stage12. King Richard II: The Performance of Majesty13. King Richard III: History’s Monster or Charismatic Villain?14. Cymbeline: Moving Across Place, Time and Genres15. The Winter’s Tale: Tyranny, Trials, Time16. The Tempest: Where ‘Thought is free’Linking QuestionsRecommended Open Access Online ResourcesGlossary of Critical Terms Used in this BookAbbreviationsReferencesIndex

The particular strength of Pamela Bickley and Jenny Stevens’ thorough guide to the study of Shakespeare’s plays is its targeting. Their discussion of each of the fourteen plays is framed via the introduction of a theoretical method and an exploration of Shakespeare’s language, thus offering a critical tool-kit aimed squarely and effectively at undergraduates and ambitious sixth formers . . . Bickley and Stevens know their audience and address it clearly and unpatronisingly. Everyone who wants, or is just beginning, to study English literature at university would benefit from this book. (Of the 1st edition)