The Oxford Shakespeare offers authoritative texts from leading scholars in editions designed to interpret and illuminate the plays for modern readers. The features include: a new, modern-spelling text, collated and edited from all existing printings; extensive introduction gives full attention to the play´s bold treatment of racial themes, gender, and social relations; detailed performance history designed to meet the needs of theatre professionals; on-page commentary and notes explain language, word-play, and staging; appendices on music in the play and a full translation of the Italian novella from which the story derives; illustrated with production photographs and related art; full index to introduction and commentary; and durable sewn binding for lasting use. Not simply a better text but a new conception of Shakespeare. This is a major achievement of twentieth-century scholarship.