<DIV><P>Shakespeare's <I>Romeo and Juliet</I> is perhaps the most read and beloved of all stage works. Now the most extensively annotated version of the play to date makes it completely accessible to readers in the twenty-first century. The new edition is a rich resource for students, teachers, and the general reader.<BR>Eminent linguist and translator Burton Raffel offers generous help with vocabulary and usage of Elizabethan English, pronunciation, prosody, and alternative readings of phrases and lines. His on-page annotations provide readers with the tools they need to comprehend the play and begin to explore its many possible interpretations. This version of <I>Romeo and Juliet </I>is<I> </I>unparalleled for its thoroughness and adherence to sound linguistic principles.<BR>In his introduction, Raffel provides historical and social contexts that increase the reader's understanding of the play. And in a concluding essay, Harold Bloom argues that <I>Romeo and Juliet </I>is<I> </I>unmatched in the world's literature ?as a vision of an uncompromising love that perishes of its own idealism and intensity.”</P></DIV>