Arden Early Modern Drama – serie

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.

Philaster is a tragicomedy by Beaumont and Fletcher which has much 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 asits relation to Shakespearean drama, and places it in its historicaland critical 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 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.

This is the first major single-volume edition of The Renegado, making it properly available to all students and teachers of early modern drama. With detailed on-page commentary notes and an illustrated introduction assessing its impact on the Renaissance stage as well as its particular relevance to our contemporary multi-cultural society, it is a stimulating and original teaching edition.

An extract from Cervantes'' The Prisons of Algiers, a key source for the play, is given in an appendix and the whole Cervantes text is available on the Arden website as an additional resource.