Arden Early Modern Drama – serie

Volpone, Or, The Fox is Ben Jonson’s great parable of greed, self-interest and inheritance. Using animal fable to satirize the wealthy and the greedy, it remains one of his most distinctive and compelling dramatic works.Jonson wrote the play for performance in 1606, and orchestrated its publication the following year. In it, the wealthy Venetian Volpone pretends to be on his deathbed, encouraging Voltore, Corbaccio and Corvino—the vulture, raven and crow—to compete for his fortune. With unflinching harshness and biting humour, Jonson portrays a society damningly hollowed out by over-monetization.This edition has been prepared by leading textual expert, John Jowett. With incisive scholarship, he explores the play’s craftsmanship and examines how theatre practitioners and critics engage with it. Detailed notes explicate an authoritative text and breathe new life into it for readers today.Arden Early Modern Drama editions offer the best in contemporary scholarship, providing a wealth of helpful and incisive commentary to guide the reader through a deeper understanding and appreciation of the play.This edition provides:A clear and authoritative textDetailed on-page commentary notesA comprehensive, illustrated introduction to the play’shistorical, cultural and performance contextsA bibliography of references and further reading

Volpone, Or, The Fox is Ben Jonson’s great parable of greed, self-interest and inheritance. Using animal fable to satirize the wealthy and the greedy, it remains one of his most distinctive and compelling dramatic works.Jonson wrote the play for performance in 1606, and orchestrated its publication the following year. In it, the wealthy Venetian Volpone pretends to be on his deathbed, encouraging Voltore, Corbaccio and Corvino—the vulture, raven and crow—to compete for his fortune. With unflinching harshness and biting humour, Jonson portrays a society damningly hollowed out by over-monetization.This edition has been prepared by leading textual expert, John Jowett. With incisive scholarship, he explores the play’s craftsmanship and examines how theatre practitioners and critics engage with it. Detailed notes explicate an authoritative text and breathe new life into it for readers today.Arden Early Modern Drama editions offer the best in contemporary scholarship, providing a wealth of helpful and incisive commentary to guide the reader through a deeper understanding and appreciation of the play.This edition provides:A clear and authoritative textDetailed on-page commentary notesA comprehensive, illustrated introduction to the play’shistorical, cultural and performance contextsA bibliography of references and further reading

Philaster is a tragicomedy by Beaumont and Fletcher which hasmuch in common with Shakespeare's late plays such as The Winter's Tale.Set in a fictionalised Sicily, it has the complex plot of love,disguise and the threat of death much loved by early moderntheatre-goers.This edition provides an authoritative, modernised text by a leadingscholar with detailed on-page commentary notes giving readers a deeperunderstanding of the play. The comprehensive, illustrated introductiondiscusses Philaster from a performance perspective as well as itsrelation to Shakespearean drama, and places it in its historical andcritical contexts. The play is often taught on Shakespeare and Early Modern dramacourses but only now is such a detailed, modern edition available foruse by students and scholars. With its wealth of helpful and incisivecommentary, this is the finest edition of the play available.The Arden Early Modern Drama series accompanies and complements theArden Shakespeare Third Series, offering editions of non-ShakespeareanRenaissance drama and Restoration drama from the period 1500-1700.Modelled on the Third Series in appearance and style ArdenEarly Modern Drama editions will offer high-quality textual scholarshipand full annotation, together with an accessible, student-friendlyintroduction.

The Duchess of Malfi is one of the major tragedies of theearly modern period and remains popular in the theatre as well as inthe classroom. The story of the Duchess's secret marriage and the cruelrevenge of her brothers has fascinated and appalled audiences forcenturies. This new Arden edition offers readers a comprehensive, illustratedintroduction to the play's historical, critical and performancehistory. The text is modernised and edited to the highest scholarlystandards, with textual notes and commentary notes on the same page forease of reference. This is the lead title in the launch of The Arden Early ModernDrama Series, a series which offers all the depth and quality ofthinking long associated with the Arden. The edition will be valued bystudents, teachers and theatre professionals.

This Jacobean tragic-comedy by Philip Massinger explores the cultural conflict between Christian Europe and Muslim North Africa experienced when the two began to travel and trade in the early modern period. The play is peopled with merchants and pirates and the somewhat convoluted plot involves conversions between both faiths, disguise, kidnap and clandestine marriage.The play is one of many of the period exploring the tantalising and sometimes threatening "other" world of other religions and cultures and as such is studied alongside more familiar plays such as Othello and The Merchant of Venice. Michael Neill explores the themes as well as the pure theatrical joy of this fast-paced play, putting it in its historical context as well as discussing how it resonates with modern audiences and readers today.

A fully modernised, annotated edition of 'Tis Pity She's a Whore, Ford's controversial tragedy of sibling incest and complex revenge plots. As with all Arden editions, detailed on-page commentary notes help the student understand and appreciate the play both in performance and as a many layered literary text.The lengthy, illustrated introduction offers a wealth of critical and contextual information about the play, and explores its theme of incest from an early modern perspective. Sonia Massai reveals the startling originality of the play, which is far more than a dark rewriting of Romeo and Juliet, and the reasons for its appeal to modern audiences.

A major new edition of Thomas Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy,an outstanding landmark of Elizabethan drama. In its time, it quickly became a box office success and probably inspired Shakespeare to write Hamlet, as it contains a ghost, murders that demand revenge and a hero that hesitates and contemplates suicide. As a revenge tragedy, it set up the salient features of a dramatic genre that would last decades. Its hero, the aged Marshall of Spain Hieronimo, whose son is murdered at night, soon transcended the play and became the standard stage representation of grief, rhetorical passion and madness. Hieronimo's main antagonist is one of the first Machiavellian characters of English drama. This edition explores the play in relation to its historical context and contemporary Iberian dynastic policy. It also relates the play, as a literary artefact, to other artistic manifestations of the European Renaissance and offers a fresh assessment of the play's stage history. For the first time in the play's textual history, this edition presents an integrated text inviting a reading of the play as it was published both in 1592 and in 1602.

Tragedy of Mariam, the Fair Queen of Jewry is a Jacobean closet drama by Elizabeth Tanfield Cary. First published in 1613, it was the first work by a woman to be published under her real name. Never performed during Cary's lifetime, and apparently never intended for performance, the Senecan revenge tragedy tells the story of Mariam, the second wife of Herod. The play exposes and explores the themes of sex, divorce, betrayal, murder, and Jewish society under Herod's tyrannous rule. The comprehensive, illustrated introduction discusses the play in the context of closet drama, female dramatists and in terms of the religious issues it explores, seeing Mariam as a martyr figure. The on-page commentary notes provide further close analysis and explanation, creating an ideal edition for study and teaching.

A Jovial Crew, or the Merry Beggars, is a comedy about four noble lovers who join the beggar community for a pastoral life of dance and song. Or is it? Whilst maintaining its unremitting good humour, A Jovial Crew shows that the literary depiction of beggar life, and real beggar life, are profoundly different. Daily aspects of life in the beggar world – poverty, dirt, licentiousness – come as a surprise to the well-born, who are ultimately led to question their own values.The last production mounted before theatres were closed for the English Civil War, A Jovial Crew’s exploration of class, commonwealth, kinship and kingship shows an intense engagement with contemporary politics. This edition, with dedicated sections on music and language in the play, argues that A Jovial Crew also offers a nostalgic farewell to English theatre. It explores Brome’s attitude to performance and print, and follows A Jovial Crew from its first, Caroline staging, to its later manifestations as a Restoration comedy, an eighteenth-century opera, and a twentieth-century proto-Marxist tragicomedy.

The Island Princess is a tragicomic romance set in the Spice Islands of Indonesia. Fletcher rewrites Shakespeare's The Tempest through the encounter of Islam and Christianity and the fierce European competition for wealth at the farthest reaches of empire. The play also stages the degeneration of religious tolerance into fanaticism. This ground-breaking edition explores the play in its gendered, political, social and religious contexts whilst also finding its resonances for a twenty-first century audience. The critical introduction and on-page commentary notes create an ideal teaching text giving a comprehensive account of the play from both literary and performance perspectives.

Vivid and daring in Marlowe’s time and ours, Edward II has captivated generations of readers, audiences and performers with its evocative portrayal of passionate friendship, kingly power and brutal retribution. Leading scholar Jeffrey Masten’s new edition of Marlowe’s great tragedy distils its importance for the history of queer sexuality, historical drama and modern performance alike. Drawing on new research into Edward’s earliest readers, as well as modern stage, film and operatic adaptations, Masten unpacks the play’s early meanings and modern resonances to spotlight its radical potential across a span of 400 years.This edition gives students a modernised, comprehensively annotated text with a detailed, illustrated introduction addressing Marlowe’s life and education, the play’s influence as a history play and its sexual, religious and national politics. Highlighted as well are Derek Jarman’s landmark queer film adaption of Edward II and celebrated performances by Ian McKellen, Derek Jacobi and Tilda Swinton.Arden Early Modern Drama editions offer the best in contemporary scholarship, providing a wealth of helpful and incisive commentary to guide the reader through a deeper understanding and appreciation of the play.This edition provides:- A clear and authoritative text- Detailed on-page commentary notes- A comprehensive, illustrated introduction to the play’s historical, cultural and performance contexts - A guide to reading an original printed page of the 1594 text- A bibliography of references and further reading

On 19 April 1621, a woman named Elizabeth Sawyer was hanged at Tyburn. Her story was on the bookstalls within days and within weeks was adapted for the stage as The Witch of Edmonton. The devil stalks Edmonton in the shape of a large black dog and, just as Elizabeth Sawyer makes her demonic pact, the newlywed Frank Thorney enters into his own dark bargain in the shape of a second, bigamous marriage. Torn between sympathy for Sawyer and Thorney and a clear-eyed assessment of their crimes, the play was the finest and most nuanced treatment of witchcraft that the stage would see for centuries. Lucy Munro's introduction provides students and scholars with a detailed understanding of this complex play.

A major new edition of this much studied play offering the standard, depth and range associated with all Arden editions. The on-page commentary notes explain the language, referenes and staging issues posed by the text while the lengthy, illustrated introduction offers a lively overview of the play's historical, performance and critical contexts. This is the ideal edition for study and performance.

The Revenger’s Tragedy treads a line between macabre humour and moral commentary. Thomas Middleton’s aptly named play begins with a man called Vindice holding the skull of his dead fiancée and vowing to avenge her death. The tragedy that unfolds features complicated plot twists in which the licentious Duke and his corrupt family, who are guilty of rape, poisoning, and much more, become the victims of torture and murder. This edition offers a comprehensive analysis of diverse critical attitudes towards the play, with special attention to its authorship and its ambiguous theological orientation. A thorough discussion of The Revenger’s Tragedy’s rich performance history shows how it has consistently reflected cultural preoccupations with violence and vigilante justice.

A fast-paced whirlwind of fantasy and mockery confined to a single room, The Alchemist offers a witty culmination of Jonson's experiments with city comedy. The play has been widely recognized as one of the most impressive achievements of the period's theatre; Coleridge famously described it as one of the three most perfect plots in literature. Yet it is a notoriously difficult play: its alchemical language has aged into obscurity, and its insiderly humour can seem impenetrable to students approaching it for the first time. This comprehensively annotated edition translates and illuminates the play's many pleasures and shows how Jonson's cynical, street-wise wit resonates with our contemporary sensibilities. Pollard highlights the play's witty ingenuity, while offering the information and guidance to enable students to understand and enjoy The Alchemist fully.

The Dutch Courtesan is a riotous tragicomedy that explores the delights and perils afforded by Jacobean London. While Freevill, an educated young Englishman and the play's nominal hero, frolics in the city's streets, taverns and brothels, Franceschina, his cast-off mistress and the Dutch courtesan of the play's title,laments his betrayal and plots revenge. Juxtaposing Franceschina's vulnerable financial position against the unappealing marital prospects available to gentry women, the play undermines the language of romance, revealing it to be rooted in the commerce and commodification. Marston's commentary on financial insecurity and the hypocritical repudiation of foreignness makes The Dutch Courtesan truly a document for our time.

Thomas Dekker’s singular comic drama, The Shoemakers’ Holiday moves through the urban landscape of 16th century apprenticeships and artisan production in this tale of thwarted marriages and class division. Simon Eyre and his rags to riches journey to becoming the city’s Lord Mayor embroils a host of lively characters who find themselves in the generative setting of the shoemakers’ workshop. Whether it be Roland Lacy, who abandons his military duties under the guise of a Dutch shoemaker to stay close to Rose Oatley, his love interest, or Ralph Damport, a journeyman shoemaker, who cannot escape conscription and finds himself separated from his wife Jane with the appearance of an elusive shoe providing the only chance of reunion. Dekker’s comedy focuses on the early modern tensions between urban artisans, wealthy merchants and the landed aristocracy. Through these relationships he explores gender, immigration and disability, mixing acute social commentary within the promise of festive escape and transformation.This edition offers readers a clear, accessible, fully annotated text, with a comprehensive introduction that covers research on class, comedy, the figure of the stranger and representations of disability. It also explores the ways in which the play’s intertwining preoccupations with love, labour and war are shaped by the city in which it was written, providing insight into urban life at the end of the Tudor era.

Thomas Dekker’s singular comic drama, The Shoemakers’ Holiday moves through the urban landscape of 16th century apprenticeships and artisan production in this tale of thwarted marriages and class division. Simon Eyre and his rags to riches journey to becoming the city’s Lord Mayor embroils a host of lively characters who find themselves in the generative setting of the shoemakers’ workshop. Whether it be Roland Lacy, who abandons his military duties under the guise of a Dutch shoemaker to stay close to Rose Oatley, his love interest, or Ralph Damport, a journeyman shoemaker, who cannot escape conscription and finds himself separated from his wife Jane with the appearance of an elusive shoe providing the only chance of reunion. Dekker’s comedy focuses on the early modern tensions between urban artisans, wealthy merchants and the landed aristocracy. Through these relationships he explores gender, immigration and disability, mixing acute social commentary within the promise of festive escape and transformation.This edition offers readers a clear, accessible, fully annotated text, with a comprehensive introduction that covers research on class, comedy, the figure of the stranger and representations of disability. It also explores the ways in which the play’s intertwining preoccupations with love, labour and war are shaped by the city in which it was written, providing insight into urban life at the end of the Tudor era.

Based on the true story of the murder of Thomas Arden by his wife, her lover and accomplices in 1551, Arden of Faversham is one of the earliest domestic tragedies and a play which has continued to thrill audiences since its first staging. This comprehensive edition situates the play in its social, cultural and political context while exploring its performance and critical history through a range of historical and contemporary productions, including William Poel’s Lilies That Fester (1897) and the Royal Shakespeare Company’s 2014 production. Throughout, the edition aims to reanimate the play’s engagement with the material culture of domestic life, using little-known evidence for the objects and spaces implicated in the murder. The introduction also accounts for recent new thinking about the play’s likely authorship, including claims that Shakespeare was a key co-author. The comprehensive, illustrated introduction combined with detailed on-page commentary notes and glosses make this an ideal edition for students and teachers.

A fully modernised, annotated edition of 'Tis Pity She's a Whore, Ford's controversial tragedy of sibling incest and complex revenge plots. As with all Arden editions, detailed on-page commentary notes help the student understand and appreciate the play both in performance and as a many layered literary text. The lengthy, illustrated introduction offers a wealth of critical and contextual information about the play, and explores its theme of incest from an early modern perspective. Sonia Massai reveals the startling originality of the play, which is far more than a dark rewriting of Romeo and Juliet, and the reasons for its appeal to modern audiences.

The Duchess of Malfi is one of the major tragedies of the early modern period and remains popular in the theatre as well as in the classroom. The story of the Duchess's secret marriage and the cruel revenge of her brothers has fascinated and appalled audiences for centuries. This new Arden edition offers readers a comprehensive, illustrated introduction to the play's historical, critical and performance history. The text is modernised and edited to the highest scholarly standards, with textual notes and commentary notes on the same page for ease of reference. This is the lead title in the launch of The Arden Early Modern Drama Series, a series which offers all the depth and quality of thinking long associated with the Arden. The edition will be valued by students, teachers and theatre professionals.

On 19 April 1621, a woman named Elizabeth Sawyer was hanged at Tyburn. Her story was on the bookstalls within days and within weeks was adapted for the stage as The Witch of Edmonton. The devil stalks Edmonton in the shape of a large black dog and, just as Elizabeth Sawyer makes her demonic pact, the newlywed Frank Thorney enters into his own dark bargain in the shape of a second, bigamous marriage. Torn between sympathy for Sawyer and Thorney and a clear-eyed assessment of their crimes, the play was the finest and most nuanced treatment of witchcraft that the stage would see for centuries. Lucy Munro's introduction provides students and scholars with a detailed understanding of this complex play.

The Island Princess is a tragicomic romance set in the Spice Islands of Indonesia. Fletcher rewrites Shakespeare's The Tempest through the encounter of Islam and Christianity and the fierce European competition for wealth at the farthest reaches of empire. The play also stages the degeneration of religious tolerance into fanaticism. This ground-breaking edition explores the play in its gendered, political, social and religious contexts whilst also finding its resonances for a twenty-first century audience. The critical introduction and on-page commentary notes create an ideal teaching text giving a comprehensive account of the play from both literary and performance perspectives.

The most studied of Thomas Heywood's plays, A Woman Killed With Kindness explores the boundaries of marital punishment and the moral weight of mercy. This major new edition of this startling domestic tragedy offers the standard, depth and range associated with all Arden editions. The on-page commentary notes explain the language, references and staging issues posed by the text while the lengthy, illustrated introduction offers a lively overview of the play's historical, performance and critical contexts. This is the ideal edition for study and performance.

Tragedy of Mariam, the Fair Queen of Jewry is a Jacobean closet drama by Elizabeth Tanfield Cary. First published in 1613, it was the first work by a woman to be published under her real name. Never performed during Cary's lifetime, and apparently never intended for performance, the Senecan revenge tragedy tells the story of Mariam, the second wife of Herod. The play exposes and explores the themes of sex, divorce, betrayal, murder, and Jewish society under Herod's tyrannous rule. The comprehensive, illustrated introduction discusses the play in the context of closet drama, female dramatists and in terms of the religious issues it explores, seeing Mariam as a martyr figure. The on-page commentary notes provide further close analysis and explanation, creating an ideal edition for study and teaching.

A major new edition of Thomas Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy,an outstanding landmark of Elizabethan drama. In its time, it quickly became a box office success and probably inspired Shakespeare to write Hamlet, as it contains a ghost, murders that demand revenge and a hero that hesitates and contemplates suicide. As a revenge tragedy, it set up the salient features of a dramatic genre that would last decades. Its hero, the aged Marshall of Spain Hieronimo, whose son is murdered at night, soon transcended the play and became the standard stage representation of grief, rhetorical passion and madness. Hieronimo's main antagonist is one of the first Machiavellian characters of English drama. This edition explores the play in relation to its historical context and contemporary Iberian dynastic policy. It also relates the play, as a literary artefact, to other artistic manifestations of the European Renaissance and offers a fresh assessment of the play's stage history. For the first time in the play's textual history, this edition presents an integrated text inviting a reading of the play as it was published both in 1592 and in 1602.

The Renegado is one of the most shamelessly entertaining plays of its age, fetching its inspiration from a number of works by Cervantes, based on his own experiences as a captive in Algiers. Introducing the eroticized captivity narrative to the English stage, Massinger's tragicomedy combines it with the long-popular romance motif of a Christian hero's conquest of an exotic princess. But even as it indulges in romantic fantasy, The Renegado engages with contentious issues of national and international politics, offering a provocative response to the sectarian feuds dividing England in the 1620s, while exploiting wider European fears of the expansionist Muslim empire of the Ottomans. Through its treatment of religious confrontation and conversion, Massinger's play offers important insights into early modern constructions of the Islamic world, and emerges as a piece with unexpected resonances for our own time.