This auction lot contains two hardcovers in dust jackets and 9 paperbacks containing 15 plays in all. The hardcovers both are tight, clean, unmarked and look unread. Of the paperbacks, 9 plays are unmarked while 6 have underlining/marginalia. The two hardcovers are:

SHAKESPEARE'S ENGLISH KINGS: History, Chronicle, and Drama, by Peter Saccio. Second Edition. Oxford University Press, 2000. Far more than any professional historian, Shakespeare is responsible for whatever notions most of us possess about English medieval history. Anyone who appreciates the dramatic action of Shakespeare's history plays but is confused by much of the historical detail will welcome this guide to the Richards, Edwards, Henrys, Warwicks and Norfolks who ruled and fought across Shakespeare's page and stage. Not only theater-goers and students, but today's film-goers who want to enrich their understanding of film adaptations of plays such as Richard III and Henry V will find this revised edition of Shakespeare's English Kings to be an essential companion. Saccio's engaging narrative weaves together three threads: medieval English history according to the Tudor chroniclers who provided Shakespeare with his material, that history as understood by modern scholars, and the action of the plays themselves. Including a new preface, a revised further reading list, genealogical charts, an appendix of names and titles, and an index, the second edition of Shakespeare's English Kings offers excellent background reading for all of the ten history plays.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE: The Man Behind the Genius, Anthony Holden. Little, Brown, 2000, First Edition. 367 pages, with two sections of illustrations. The details of the Bard's life are famously sketchy, but the author of this study hews to them and fills out a biography that focuses as much on the man as on his work, taking up the controversial question of whether Shakespeare actually wrote the plays attributed to him.

The paperbacks are all Bantam Classic editions, with Foreword, Introduction, Textual Notes, Sources:

• HAMLET TWELFTH NIGHT
• A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM
• HENRY IV, PART ONE
• MACBETH
• RICHARD II
• THE LATE ROMANCES: PERICLES, CYMBELINE, THE WINTER'S TALE, THE TEMPEST
• THREE CLASSICAL TRAGEDIES: TITUS ANDRONICUS, TIMON OF ATHENS, CORIOLANUS
• MEASURE FOR MEASURE, ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL and TROILUS AND CRESSIDA

SHIPPING: Buyer to pay s/h media rate in U.S.$6.95; tracking .60 or insurance 1.70 per $50.00 if wanted. If you would prefer priority mail please email and provide your zip code for s/h.

***Will gladly combine with any of my other media items at auction or in my eBay store http://stores.ebay.com/ElisabethPaulBooks to save you money. (On multiple purchases that ship together within the U.S., shipping is based on the heaviest and all other purchases are $1.50 extra per auction for media mail.)***

PAYMENT: My PayPal address is the same as my eBay one: elisjb@earthlink.net. Other countries please e-mail about s/h and method of payment.

Thanks for looking! Feel free to email prior to bidding if you have any questions.