In his analysis, Marvin Rosenberg sets out to steer a path between the "extremes" of Rome and Egypt and all they stand for: and to explore the relentless "to and back" confrontation of their different sets of values which leads ultimately to destruction.
Rarely does a scholar single-handedly point Shakespeare study in a new direction. But in the 1950s, Marvin Rosenberg led the way to a wider perspective of the poet-playwright's genius. The essays in this collection, which span Rosenberg's entire career, reflect the remarkable diversity of the scholar's pursuit of his vision.
In what Norman Sanders has termed [a] now classic study, noted Shakespearean Marvin Rosenberg sets out to discover how the complex, troubled characters of the play have been interpreted by actors and critics from Shakespeare's time to the present.
LEAR: Does Lear walk thus? Speak thus? / Who is it that can tell me who I am?" "Centuries of critics and actors have tried to tell, but Lear's identity, and the meaning of his action in the play, are still touched with enigma." "This book seeks Shakespeare's intentions in King Lear in new ways. It explores major interpretations of distinguished actors and directors as well as of critics from England, the United States, France, Belgium, Japan, Sweden, Norway, Germany, Italy, the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Poland. Is the play unsuited for the stage, as Charles Lamb - and others - have declared? How, in fact, has it been staged, and how visualized by critics? Is Lear designed to be a frail and aging old man? A powerful image of authority? Mad, or senile, to begin with? A kindly old father? Everyman? All of these? None? Does the play end with redemption? Unmitigated despair? Is it Christian? Pagan? Mr. Rosenberg confronts these and other questions from the base of his study and personal experience of the play." "To deepen the theatrical side of that experience, he began, as he did in his The Masks of Othello, with an involvement in the staged play: he directed and acted in Othello, and he followed a production of King Lear through two months of rehearsal and performance. One by-product of this intense participation was a discovery of some special qualities in the language of the play." "To achieve a better understanding of these qualities, Mr. Rosenberg put Lear's vocabulary through a computer, and established a concordance of every word both for the play as a whole and for each character. Interesting structural elements in Shakespeare's language become apparent." "Recognizing the difficulty, for a critic, of responding afresh to Shakespeare's craftsmanship in characterization and in arousing expectation, Mr. Rosenberg also arranged to expose the play to spectators who had never seen or read it. The response of this naive audience, after attending performances, was curious and illuminating. The author believes that any critical approach must be used that will increase our understanding of Shakespeare's work."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Every reader is an actor according to Rosenberg. To prepare the actor-reader for insights, Rosenberg draws on major intepretations of the play worldwide, in theatre and in criticism, wherever possible from the first known performances to the present day. The book is rich and provocative on every question about the play.
2016 Reprint of 1961 Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. In what is now considered a classic study, noted Shakespearean Marvin Rosenberg sets out to discover how the complex, troubled characters of the play have been interpreted by actors and critics from Shakespeare's time to the present. Rosenberg's study of the successive stage editings of Othello--some of them to reduce playing time, others demanded by the taste and moral sense of each new age--provides a running commentary of social and cultural history, and shows how those cuttings affected, as well as revealed, the actors' concepts of the characters. "Othello" is the most erotic, the most sensual in language and imagery of the tragedies, and its heavily sexual atmosphere, so suitable to the seventeenth century, offended later cultures. The eighteenth century tried to "refine" it, and the nineteenth, particularly the age of Victoria, to refine it even further, but the essential form of the play survived.--From the Dust Jacket. Contents: Part. 1. The beginning. The actor's share -- Othello in the Restoration -- pt. 2. The eighteenth century -- The eighteenth century actors -- pt. 3. The nineteenth century. Kean -- Mcready, Fechter, Irving -- Booth -- Forrest -- Salvini -- The Victorian Iago -- The Victorian Desdemona -- pt. 4. The twentieth century. The modern Othello -- The modern Iago -- pt. 5. Othello and the critics. In defense of Iago -- In defense of Othello -- In defense of Desdemona -- In defense of the play: I -- In defense of the play: II -- Appendix: A kind word for Bowdler.
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