Arden Shakespeare

The Arden Shakespeare is a long-running series of scholarly editions of the works of William Shakespeare. It presents fully edited modern-spelling editions of the plays and poems, with lengthy introductions and full commentaries. There have been three distinct series of the Arden Shakespeare over the past century, and the third series has not yet been completed. The name 'Arden' refers to Shakespeare's mother, Mary Arden, to the Forest of Arden where he grew up, and to the setting of his play "As You Like It".Fact|date=July 2008

The first series was published by Methuen. Its first publication was Edward Dowden's edition of "Hamlet", published in 1899, and over the next 25 years, the entire canon of Shakespeare was edited and published.

The second series began in the 1950s, with a new group of editors freshly re-editing the plays, and was completed in the 1980s. It was published by Methuen in both hardback and paperback. The paperbacks featured cover art by the Brotherhood of Ruralists.

The third series began in the 1990s. The first editions were initially published by Routledge, then by Thomson, and are now published by Cengage Learning. The general editors are Richard Proudfoot, Ann Thompson and David Scott Kastan. The series is not yet complete, having published about half of the Shakespeare canon.

Arden has also published a "Complete Works" of Shakespeare, which reprints editions from the second and third series.

External links

* [http://www.ardenshakespeare.com/ Official site]