具体描述
内容简介
Magic, love spells, and an enchanted wood provide the materials for one of Shakespeare' s most delightful comedies. When four young lovers, fleeing the Athenian law and their own mismatched rivalries, take to the forest of Athens, their lives become entangled with a feud between the King and Queen of the Fairies. Some Athenian tradesmen, rehearsing a play for the forthcoming wedding of Duke Theseus and his bride, Hippolyta, unintentionally add to the hilarity. The result is a marvelous mix-up of desire and enchantment, merriment and farce, all touched by Shakespeare' s inimitable vision of the intriguing relationship between art and life, dreams and the waking world.
Each Edition Includes:
- Comprehensive explanatory notes
- Vivid introductions and the most up-to-date scholarship
- Clear, modernized spelling and punctuation, enabling contemporary readers to understand the Elizabethan English
- Completely updated, detailed bibliographies and performance histories
- An interpretive essay on film adaptations of the play, along with an extensive filmography 作者简介
William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in April 1564, and his birth is traditionally celebrated on April 23. The facts of his life, known from surviving documents, are sparse. He was one of eight children born to John Shakespeare, a merchant of some standing in his community. William probably went to the King's New School in Stratford, but he had no university education. In November 1582, at the age of eighteen, he married Anne Hathaway, eight years his senior, who was pregnant with their first child, Susanna. She was born on May 26, 1583. Twins, a boy, Hamnet ( who would die at age eleven), and a girl, Judith, were born in 1585. By 1592 Shakespeare had gone to London working as an actor and already known as a playwright. A rival dramatist, Robert Greene, referred to him as "an upstart crow, beautified with our feathers." Shakespeare became a principal shareholder and playwright of the successful acting troupe, the Lord Chamberlain's Men (later under James I, called the King's Men). In 1599 the Lord Chamberlain's Men built and occupied the Globe Theater in Southwark near the Thames River. Here many of Shakespeare's plays were performed by the most famous actors of his time, including Richard Burbage, Will Kempe, and Robert Armin. In addition to his 37 plays, Shakespeare had a hand in others, including Sir Thomas More and The Two Noble Kinsmen, and he wrote poems, including Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece. His 154 sonnets were published, probably without his authorization, in 1609. In 1611 or 1612 he gave up his lodgings in London and devoted more and more time to retirement in Stratford, though he continued writing such plays as The Tempest and Henry VII until about 1613. He died on April 23 1616, and was buried in Holy Trinity Church, Stratford. No collected edition of his plays was published during his life-time, but in 1623 two members of his acting company, John Heminges and Henry Condell, put together the great collection now called the First Folio. 精彩书评
"A feast of literary and historical information."
——The Wall Street Journal
历史的低语:从古罗马到文艺复兴的权力、信仰与艺术变迁 本书深入探讨了从罗马帝国衰落至文艺复兴初期,欧洲社会经历的深刻变革。我们聚焦于那些塑造了现代西方文明根基的关键力量:政治结构的演变、基督教信仰的巩固与扩张,以及艺术和思想的复苏。 第一部分:帝国的黄昏与新秩序的萌芽(约公元 476 年 – 10 世纪) 本部分详尽考察了西罗马帝国瓦解后的“黑暗时代”的真实面貌。我们摒弃了传统史学中对这一时期的单一负面描述,转而关注蛮族部落如何与罗马残余精英进行融合,逐渐孕育出早期的封建制度雏形。 蛮族王国的形成与法律冲突: 重点分析了法兰克人、西哥特人以及伦巴第人在高卢、伊比利亚和意大利建立的王国。研究这些新政权如何试图调和罗马的成文法与日耳曼民族的习惯法。例如,萨利克法典的诞生,它不仅是法律文本,更是文化碰撞的物证。我们探究了这些法律如何逐步固化了土地与人身依附关系,为后世的庄园制度奠定基础。 基督教在权力真空中的角色: 罗马教会在政治权力真空中的崛起,是这一时期最重要的现象。本书细致梳理了教皇与地方主教如何填补行政空白,提供社会秩序与精神慰藉。对比了圣奥古斯丁的《上帝之城》与早期教父思想,分析了“双重权威”概念(精神与世俗)如何在实践中产生张力与合作。克洛维的皈依及其对法兰克王国统一的政治意义,将被置于更广阔的框架下考察。 加洛林文艺复兴的得与失: 查理曼大帝的统治被视为一次短暂的文化复兴尝试。我们分析了宫廷学校在标准化拉丁语、保存古典文本方面的贡献,同时也审视了这种复兴的脆弱性——一旦中央权威衰落,这些知识成果如何迅速地退回修道院的壁垒之中,成为少数精英的专属。对于加洛林王朝的衰亡,我们侧重于领主制度的内部固化和维京人、马扎尔人的外部冲击。 第二部分:信仰的铁壁与世俗权力的扩张(约 11 世纪 – 13 世纪) 本部分聚焦于中世纪盛期的结构性转变,特别是教会改革运动和世俗君主国的崛起,这两股力量共同定义了后期的欧洲格局。 格里高利改革与“叙任权之争”: 详细阐述了教皇格里高利七世对教会内部腐败(如圣职买卖和神职人员的世俗化)的猛烈抨击,以及由此引发的与神圣罗马帝国皇帝亨利四世之间的“叙任权之争”。这场斗争的本质是精神权力对世俗权力的边界划定,它深刻影响了欧洲政治哲学的演变方向。我们探讨了《沃姆斯协约》如何以妥协的方式,为教会的独立性争取到了制度保障。 十字军运动的经济与社会后果: 十字军东征不仅仅是宗教狂热,更是一场深刻的经济与贸易重组。本书分析了威尼斯、热那亚等意大利城邦如何利用十字军的需求,建立起地中海贸易霸权。同时,考察了东征对欧洲内部的社会结构影响,包括贵族阶层的损耗、骑士精神的理想化与现实的背离。 封建制度的成熟与城市革命: 探讨了封建采邑制度在这一时期的成熟形态,包括效忠宣誓、分封和军事义务的复杂网络。与此并存的是,自给自足的庄园经济开始受到城市商业的冲击。北方意大利和弗兰德斯等地的商业城市如何通过特许状(Charters)获得自治权,并发展出早期的行会制度和资本积累模式,为后来的商业革命埋下伏笔。 第三部分:思想的觉醒与知识的重塑(约 12 世纪 – 14 世纪) 本部分转向思想史的领域,关注古典知识的回归如何催化了新的学术范式和世界观的构建。 经院哲学的辉煌与局限: 亚里士多德思想的重新发现(通过阿拉伯学者如阿维森纳和阿维洛伊)对欧洲思想界产生了爆炸性的影响。重点分析了托马斯·阿奎那如何成功地将亚里士多德的理性逻辑与基督教神学进行系统性的整合,创建了《神学大全》。同时,我们也批判性地讨论了经院哲学在后期日益僵化的趋势,以及罗杰·培根等人对经验观察的早期呼唤。 大学的诞生与知识共同体: 巴黎、牛津等早期大学的建立,标志着知识生产从修道院走向专业化的学术机构。本书分析了大学的组织结构(学生行会与教师公会)、课程设置(三艺与四艺)以及学位授予制度,如何构建了一个跨越国界的知识共同体,并培养了第一代拥有专业技能的文职人员和法律顾问。 对世俗权威的理论辩护: 随着君主权力的增强,对世俗统治合法性的辩护也日益重要。研究马西利乌斯·帕多瓦的《和平保卫者》,探讨其中蕴含的早期主权理论,即权力来源于人民的授权而非神授,这与教皇的传统观点构成了尖锐的对立。 通过对政治、宗教和社会经济的细致交叉分析,本书旨在展现中世纪晚期社会内部的张力与活力,理解这些张力如何最终打破了旧有的均衡,为文艺复兴的人文主义思潮和新的民族国家的形成提供了必要的历史土壤。这是一个关于秩序瓦解、知识重构和权力博弈的宏大叙事。