Early Modern English Drama: A Critical Companion / Edition 1

by Garrett A. Sullivan, Patrick Cheney, Andrew Hadfield

Overview

Early Modern English Drama: A Critical Companion presents twenty-seven analytical essays on individual plays from the early modern period. Each essay is written by a leading scholar and examines a play in terms of a cultural or literary topic, from London to the law, servants to sovereigns, and geography to religion. Incorporating current perspectives in critical studies, the essays address issues of race, class, gender, sexuality, and colonialism, as well as key aspects of intellectual and social history, including humanism, science, the law, and theology.
Featuring the authors and plays most often taught in college courses, Early Modern English Drama: A Critical Companion is an ideal supplement to both primary texts and anthologies of Renaissance drama. It offers extensive coverage of works by Ben Jonson, Christopher Marlowe, and William Shakespeare and also analyzes plays by Francis Beaumont, Elizabeth Cary, John Fletcher, John Ford, Thomas Kyd, Henry Medwall, Thomas Middleton, William Rowley, John Webster, and others. The book is structured around authors and their works, which are related to the issue or topic in question. The essays are organized chronologically according to the dates of composition, performance, or publication of the plays discussed. This design corresponds perfectly with courses in which students first read a primary text and then expand their understanding of the work with detailed critical commentary that provides historical and cultural context. Early Modern English Drama: A Critical Companion is enhanced by a general introduction that looks at the conditions of playgoing in early modern England, recommended reading lists at the end of each chapter, a chronology of Renaissance drama tailored to the book's contents, and brief biographies of the included authors.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195153866
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	09/29/2005
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	6.22(w) x 9.12(h) x 0.63(d)

About the Author

The Pennsylvania State University

The Pennsylvania State University

University of Sussex

Table of Contents

PrefaceSelect Chronology, 1561-1660Introduction: Theatergoing Then and Now1. Dramatic Authorship and Print, Wendy Wall2. Theater Companies and Stages, Roslyn L. Knutson3. Fulgens and Lucres and Early Tudor Drama, Greg Walker4. Tamburlaine and Renaissance Geography, John Gillies5. The Spanish Tragedy and Revenge, Gregory M. Colon Semenza6. Turks and Jews in The Jew of Malta, Daniel Vitkus7. Arden of Faversham and the Early Modern Household, Garrett A. Sullivan, Jr.8. Edward II and Male Same-Sex Desire, Alan Stewart9. Dr. Faustus and Reformation Theology, Kristen Poole10. Henry V and the Tudor Monarchy, Constance Jordan11. Hamlet and Humanism, Neil Rhodes12. Twelfth Night, Gender, and Comedy, R. W. Maslen13. Othello and the Moor, Emily C. Bartels14. The Masque of Blackness and Stuart Court Culture, Martin Butler15. Death and The Revenger's Tragedy, Michael Neill16. Volpone and the Classics, Raphael Lyne17. The Knight of the Burning Pestle and Generic Experimentation, Lucy Munro18. The Alchemist and Science, Katherine Eggert19. The Roaring Girl and the London Underworld, Clare McManus20. The White Devil and the Law, Luke Wilson21. A Chaste Maid in Cheapside and London, Karen Newman22. The Tragedy of Mariam and the Politics of Marriage, Danielle Clarke23. Bartholomew Fair and the Humoral Body, Gail Kern Paster24. The Duchess of Malfi and Early Modern Widows, Dympna Callaghan25. The Island Princess and Race, Claire Jowitt26. The Changeling and Masters and Servants, Mark Thornton Burnett27. 'Tis Pity She's a Whore and Incest, Richard A. McCabeBiographical Notes on Authors, Paul D. StegnerNotes on ContributorsIndex

Editorial Reviews

"The essays are admirably succinct, so should not prove offputting to students, and they are all newly written by very distinguished contributors who have done previous fine work on the play on which they write here. This is a very useful collection, and one which I will not hesitate to recommend to students."—Notes and Queries

From the Publisher