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This new edition of Shakespeare´s dark comedy of sexual desire and hypocrisy, developed by and for the RSC, includes new interviews with one leading director and two actors (Trevor Nunn, Roger Allam, and Josette Simon), looks at specific productions in the play´s history, and a completely new introduction by acclaimed scholar Jonathan Bate.

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From the Royal Shakespeare Company - a modern, definitive edition of Shakespeare´s most loved comedy. With an expert introduction by Sir Jonathan Bate, this unique edition presents a historical overview of Measure for Measure in performance, takes a detailed look at specific productions, and recommends film versions. Included in this edition are three interviews with a leading director and two actors - Trevor Nunn, Roger Allam and Josette Simon - providing an illuminating insight into the extraordinary variety of interpretations that are possible. This edition also includes an essay on Shakespeare´s career and Elizabethan theatre, and enables the reader to understand the play as it was originally intended - as living theatre to be enjoyed and performed.

Ideal for students, theatre-goers, actors and general readers, the RSC Shakespeare editions offer a fresh, accessible and contemporary approach to reading and rediscovering Shakespeare´s works for the twenty-first century.

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Introduction.- About the Text.- Key Facts.- Measure for Measure.- Textual Notes.- Scene-by-scene Analysis.- Measure for Measure in Performance: the RSC and Beyond.- Four Centuries of Measure for Measure: An Overview.- At the RSC.- Playing Measure for Measure: interviews with Trevor Nunn, Josette Simon, Roger Allam.- Shakespeare´s Career in the Theatre.- Shakespeare´s Works: a Chronology.- Further Reading and Viewing.- References.- Acknowledgements and Picture Credits

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SIR JONATHAN BATE is Professor of Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature, University of Warwick, UK, and the editor of The RSC Shakespeare: The Complete Works (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008). He has held visiting posts at Harvard, Yale and UCLA and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a Fellow of the British Academy, an Honorary Fellow of St Catherine´s College, Cambridge, and a Governor and Board member of the Royal Shakespeare Company. A prominent critic, award-winning biographer and broadcaster, he is the author of several books on Shakespeare, including The Genius of Shakespeare (Picador), which was praised by Sir Peter Hall, founder of the RSC, as ´the best modern book on Shakespeare.´ In June 2006 he was awarded a CBE by HM The Queen ´for services to Higher Education´.

ERIC RASMUSSEN is Professor of English at the University of Nevada, USA, and the Textual Editor of The RSC Shakespeare: The Complete Works. He is co-editor of the Norton Anthology of English Renaissance Drama and has edited volumes in both the Arden Shakespeare and Oxford World´s Classics series. He is the General Textual Editor of the Internet Shakespeare Editions project - one of the most visited Shakespeare websites in the world. For over nine years he has written the annual review of editions and textual studies for the Shakespeare Survey.

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