The Norton Shakespeare: Based on the Oxford Shakespeare [Hardcover]

* it is based on the reputable, and widely referenced Oxford Shakespeare, and although an 'American edition', follows the English spelling in all but the notes and introductions;
* the plays are in (conjectured) choronological order;
* most importantly, all glosses, explications and historical notes are on the text page itself (either as foot-, or marginal-notes) - no endless back-turning;
* furthermore, the quality of the notes is almost equal to that of the major multi-volume editions, although less verbose, and more relevant. Indeed it makes you appreciate that you are paying for a lot of scholarly fluff when you pay for an Arden or a single-play Oxford, with their endless quibbles on Latinisms and rewordings. Indeed, often the Norton has more direct glosses, and is more semantically illuminating and clarifying than those other editions, which assume too much in the reader. But the Norton also gives you scholarly references as well. You only lack the obscurest of literary references , which only the most scrutinizing of academics would ever need, and for that you would be working from a single-play text;
* textual variants are listed at the end of each play, showing editorial decisions clearly;
* spelling and names are modernised, and conventional/archaic spellings are rejected (e.g. banquet, for banket - which some Arden editors retain for not even academic reasons);
* consistently more stage directions, with assistance on who is addressing whom, who is front-stage, upper-stage, kneeling, armed, motioning etc.;
* genealogical tables, choronology, facsimiles of the frontispiece, introduction, commemorations and contents pages of the first Folio;
* copious illustrations in the 6-7 large-page, small-text introductions to each play;
* textual notes, and bibliographies for each play
* 20-page general bibliography on critics, history, performance, textual criticism, contexts;
* 3 versions of King Lear!;
* includes Two Noble Kinsmen, the Funeral elegy, and explanations/summaries of the missing works;
* 100-pages of Documents, and 80-page general introduction.

This is truly a complete and comperehensive Shakespeare edition.
BUY!