The evils of greed and ambition overwhelm love, innocence, and the bonds of kinship in this dark tragedy concerning the secret marriage of a noblewoman and a commoner. John Webster's great Jacobean drama detailing the fiendish schemes of two brothers who desire their wealthy sister's title and estates ends with a bloody and horrifying climax.
Hamlet by William Shakespeare The quintessential Shakespearean tragedy, whose highly charged confrontations and anguished soliloquies probe depths of human feeling rarely sounded in any art. Reprinted from an authoritative British edition complete with illuminating footnotes.
Volpone by Ben Jonson Great Elizabethan satire concerns a wealthy, lecherous old man who feigns a mortal illness to solicit bribes from greedy acquaintances.
Dr. Faustus by Christopher Marlowe One of the glories of Elizabethan drama: Marlowe's powerful retelling of the story of the learned German doctor who sells his soul to the devil in exchange for knowledge and power. Footnotes.
Volpone and The Alchemist by Ben Jonson These much-studied and frequently performed comedies by the great Elizabethan playwright satirize the greed, mendacity, gullibility, and pretension that Jonson saw rampant in 17th-century London society.
Ten Plays by Anton Chekhov The Sea Gull, Uncle Vanya, The Three Sisters, The Cherry Orchard, and Ivanov, plus 5 one-act comedies: The Anniversary, An Unwilling Martyr, The Wedding, The Bear, and The Proposal.
