English Dramatists – serie

This book considers the plays by Shakespeare produced during the reign of Elizabeth and discusses some of the key issues of the day in their historical context. Using a comparative method that seeks to move away from the division of Shakespeare's works into categories of tragedies, comedies and histories, plays are compared and contrasted for the purpose of analysing wider contextual questions. This is a useful book for students and, with its companion volume - Shakespeare: The Jacobean Plays which examines the plays written after the accession of James I in 1601, it provides an overview of the work of a great dramatist in his own time.

Each generation needs to be introduced to the culture and great works of the past and to reinterpret them in its own ways. This series re-examines the important English dramatists of earlier centuries in the light of new information, ew interests and new attitudes. The books will be relevant to those interested in literatire, theatre and cultural history, and to threatre-goers and general readers who want an up-to-date view of these dramatists and their plays, with the emphasis on performance and relevant culture history.This book explores the reasons for the deep and lasting appeal of Sheridan's and Goldsmith's comedies, showing how they operate at the profound imaginative level and draw on their author's experience as Irish wits in an English scene. Their subtle dramatic techniques are examined in relation to physical features of the eighteenth-century stage. A chapter on sentimental comedy relates to plays such as Hugh Kelly's False Delicacy to the balance of irony and sentiment in Goldsmith's The Good Natur'd Man and Sheridan's A Trip to Scarborough. The continuing freshness of the comedy of mistakes, masks and Harlequin-like role playing which the two playwrights draw from the operatic and theatrical conventions of their day is illustrated from modern productions. These have helped to illuminate the psychological truth and social awareness underlying the sparkling surfaces of Sheridan's and Goldsmith's classic comedies.

Medieval Drama is a textbook, designed to be used by A level and undergraduate students of theatre and drama. It is divided into two major areas, mystery cycles and morality plays, and it examines the plays from a performance perspective. The book makes special reference to those texts contained within selections of plays which can be readily obtained by students, including A.C.Cawley's Everyman and Medieval Miracle Plays (Dent). The staging conventions of pageant waggon performance, place and scaffold playing and the drama of the Hall are explored in relation to the cultural context of the medieval period.

Etherege & Wycherley is the first book-length study devoted solely to these two leading comic dramatists of the early Restoration period.B.A. Kachur explores the major plays by George Etherege and William Wycherley within the context of the cultural, social and political changes that marked the reign of Charles II, and addresses issues such as marriage, manners, heroism, sovereignty and anxieties over class hierarchies which preoccupied late seventeenth-century England.The book provides studies of the following plays:- She Would If She Could- The Man of Mode- The Country Wife- The Plain DealerIn addition to examining the plays as cultural and historical texts, Kachur offers:- Biographical sketches detailing the dramaturgical styles of the two playwrights- An overview of Charles II's reign, including its effects on the dramatic literature of the era- A survey of Carolean theatre and drama outlining innovations in staging, and major dramatic genres- Performance histories which illuminate the ways in which twentieth-century directors have interpreted the comedies to make them accessible to modern audiences