Three Comedies

"The New Folger is an edition that all serious Shakespeare students will want to read and accumulate, and one that many teachers of Shakespeare will surely judge the best available."-- The Shakespeare NewsletterThe havoc wrought on lovers by magic inA Midsummer Night's Dream,the furious battle of the sexes waged inThe Taming of the Shrew,and a stranded woman finding her way in a man's world inTwelfth Night-- this collection of three of Shakespeare's greatest comedies is based on the acclaimed individual Folger editions of the plays. The present volume offers accurate texts in modern spelling, full explanatory notes, and scene-by-scene action summaries.

William Shakespeare was born in April 1564 in the town of Stratford-upon-Avon, on England’s Avon River. When he was eighteen, he married Anne Hathaway. The couple had three children—an older daughter Susanna and twins, Judith and Hamnet. Hamnet, Shakespeare’s only son, died in childhood. The bulk of Shakespeare’s working life was spent in the theater world of London, where he established himself professionally by the early 1590s. He enjoyed success not only as a playwright and poet, but also as an actor and shareholder in an acting company. Although some think that sometime between 1610 and 1613 Shakespeare retired from the theater and returned home to Stratford, where he died in 1616, others believe that he may have continued to work in London until close to his death.

Barbara A. Mowat is Director of Research emerita at the Folger Shakespeare Library, Consulting Editor of Shakespeare Quarterly, and author of The Dramaturgy of Shakespeare’s Romances and of essays on Shakespeare’s plays and their editing.

Paul Werstine is Professor of English at the Graduate School and at King’s University College at Western University. He is a general editor of the New Variorum Shakespeare and author of Early Modern Playhouse Manuscripts and the Editing of Shakespeare and of many papers and articles on the printing and editing of Shakespeare’s plays.