Revels Plays – serie

Thorough annotation and commentary. Emphasis on the political, historical and religious allusions in the play. Presented in a clear and lucid form.

An annotated edition of an important Jacobean comedy, which is currently receiving greater attention from critics and on stage because the leading character is based on a famous personality of the time, Moll Cutpurse. The history of Moll Cutpurse and its subsequent influence on the women's movement and feminist concerns make this book relevant to women's study courses and this is edition incorporates variant readings found in only one copy of the quarto.

The best edition of the play in print. Gives a radical re-examination of the manuscript, and relates step by step to the process by which the play acquired its final form. Accounts for every single word and mark found in the manuscript - reproduces rejected or alternative passages at the end of the text. Includes a detailed discussion of the authorship and date of the original text and so-called additions. Particularly important now as the play feeds into the present speculation concerning Shakespeare's Catholic roots.

For many years Middleton's "A Game at Chess" was more notorious than read, considered rather a phenomenon of theatrical history than a pre-eminent piece of dramatic writing. "A Game at Chess" was a nine days' wonder, an exceptional play of King James' reign on account of its unprecedented representation of matters of state usually forbidden on the stage. The King's Men performed the play uninterruptedly between 5th and 14th August, 1624 at their Globe Theatre, attracting large audiences, before the Privy Council closed the theatre by the King's command. More recently, growing interest in the connections of economics and politics with authorship have promoted readings that locate the play so firmly within its historical context as propaganda that, again, its worthwhile literary and theatrical qualities are neglected. In writing "A Game at Chess", Middleton employed the devices of the neoclassical comedy of intrigue within the matrix of the traditional oral play. What might have seemed old-fashioned allegory was rejuvenated by his adoption of the fashionable game of chess as the fiction within which the play was set. The product of Middleton's experienced craftsmanship is at once deceptively simple and surprisingly complex.

Set in Ancient Rome, "Poetaster" offers one of the first and most subtle statements in English of the Augustan cultural ideal. Jonson contrasts Augustus' wise rule with an English polity dominated (like the stage) by malice, intrigue and envy. This text examines these different strands so skilfully interwoven by Jonson, and argues for a reassessment of "Poetaster" as one of the most ideologically interesting of all early modern plays. The accompanying explanatory notes guide the reader through the personal and political illusions which gave the play its immediate satirical impact.

Michaelmas Term is one of five satiric city comedies that the young playwright Thomas Middleton wrote for the boy players of St Paul's Cathedral, sometime before 1607. Set in a vividly detailed, realistic urban milieu at the start of London's social season, the play comes alive through the central contest between Ephestian Quomodo, an ambitious, land-hungry city merchant, and Richard Easy, a naive landowning gallant just arrived in the city. Easy is soon deep in debt and his struggle to recoup his debts and reclaim his land from Quomodo takes places against a sharply drawn set of London types - Quomodo's socially and sexually ambitious wife and daughter, the Scottish upstart Andrew Lethe, and his mistress the Country Wench, eager to exchange her virginity for an elegant new wardrobe. With its witty, bawdy dialogue and complex gulling action, the play offers an unusually cynical assessment of the social and familial displacements, and of the alienation and loss of cultural memory, so characteristic of life in the great metropolis of early modern London. In this sense, the play is an early satiric diagnosis of urban modernity. This edition, newly collated and edited, features complete explanations of the play's often bawdy exchanges and the complex stage action of the gulling and secondary plots. It will be invaluable for advanced students of the Middleton canon as well as all those interested in early modern London and its vibrant theatrical culture, especially the tradition of boy choristers as professional actors.

This volume in the "Revel Plays" series, offers reading editions, with modern spelling, of the 1604 and 1616 editions of Marlowe's play, arguing that the two cannot be conflated into one. Included are sources and commentary, literary criticism, style and staging/performance assessments.

The introduction to this edition contains an analysis of the first quarto (including new evidence of its original dating) and a reconsideration of the play's complex relation to the Shakespearean histories that preceded and followed it. Charles R. Forker offers a discussion of Marlowe's use of sources, and presents a new argument for the drama's five-act structure. He delves into the conflicting and controversial opinions concerning the genre and sexual politics of the play, and also includes a full record of the stage history. Forker has collated some 46 editions (including the important, rare and usually ignored editions of Broughton and Oxberry in 1818). The appendices provide substantive variants from the Broughton and Oxberry texts as well as extracts from the sources.

This edition of "The Devil is an Ass" (1616) aims to provide an insight into Jonson's life and work, the theatrical qualities of the play, its political background and its textual history. In his introduction, Peter Happe looks at the special place of the play in Jonson's own life, his interest in London, the theatrical setting of the play and its sources and analogues. There are critical and explanatory commentaries and a glossarial index. The play is seen in its historical and political context, by linking it with late medieval and Elizabethan plays, as well as with the Jacobean stage. The text is meticulously and reliably edited, with modernized spelling for today's reader. A commentary is provided to explain difficult or significant passages. The stage history of the play also includes very recent productions.

Full and comprehensive commentary. Solid and scholarly introduction. A welcome edition to this renouned series .

Scholarly and detailed annotations. Provides a thorough sense of the plays background and content. Full and comprehensive introduction.

This is the most thoroughly investigated edition of Volpone to date, based on a wider collation of the 1607 quarto and 1616 folio versions than was previously possible. It calls into question several accepted textual conclusions. The introduction sets Volpone in the context of Jonson’s career at the time of writing and introduces new material on its relation to the Reynard beast epic and the commedia dell’ arte. Ambiguities in the play are discussed with reference to two Renaissance perversions of the myth of the Golden Age. Particular attention is paid to the rhythmic effects of the play in performance, especially interweavings of the main plot and subplot. Fresh suggestions are made about the play’s opening and its controversial conclusion in the light of experiments that have been made in performance since Volpone ’s stage revival in 1921. The modernized text is accompanied by full commentary, notes and illustrations. The appendices include a discussion by John Cutts of the original music, passages translated from the original sources and analogues, and a full record of the play’s modern stage history, its many adaptations, and its transformations into opera, musical comedy, film and television.

"The Malcontent" is considered one of the most original and complex plays of the Elizabethan theatre. The aim of this edition is to offer answers to the various questions raised by the play and relate it to the aesthetic cross-currents flowing in the 17th century.

Authoritative version of this much loved play. Back in print after a dozen years with corrections and amendations. Part of MUP's strategy to have the complete works of Marlowe in print by the year 2000. Very popular edition by one of the most respected dramatic scholars.

Generally acknowledged to be the most powerful of Beaumont and Fletcher’s plays and frequently performed by the best actors of the seventeenth and early eighteenth century, The Maid’s Tragedy (1610-11) disappeared from the stage (except in a much-altered and very successful Victorian adaptation) until recent years, when major companies have rediscovered its appeal. In this fully annotated edition, the editor has given careful attention to the sense of the lines, the stage action and the verse. Many new emendations of textual errors, as well as improvements in stage directions and lineation, are either introduced or proposed. The introduction explores Beaumont and Fletcher’s use of the three known sources (two of them previously neglected) for incidents in the play, gives the fullest available account of its stage history, and provides a sympathetic interpretation of the play as a romantic tragedy.

Thomas Dekker's The Shoemaker's Holiday is one of the most popular of Elizabethan plays, entertaining, racy and vivid in its characterisation. Revealing a vital portrait of Elizabethan London and the interaction of social classes within the city, its social commentary is on the whole optimistic, though darker tones are discernible. The play has the whole optimistic, though darker tones are discernible. The play has had a lively history of performance on both the professional and amateur stage; the roles of Simon and Madgy Eyre in particular have proved worthy vehicles for the talents of such performers as Sir Donald Wolfit and Dame Edith Evans, and a notable production was directed by Orson Wells.The editors offer a study of the text; a historical and critical introduction, which includes a study of the play's relationship with contemporary life and drama and of its place in Dekker's work; a stage history' a detailed commentary and a reprint of source materials.

One of a series of play texts by Elizabethan and Jacobean dramatists other than Shakespeare, this volume discusses the plays "Campaspe" and "Sappho and Phao" by John Lyly. The series aims to throw light on the plays and to offer views of the plays that have been neglected in the past.

This is the new paperback edition of the first fully annotated volume of Ben Jonson's 'The Magnetic Lady' written in 1632. It contains textual and explanatory notes and the text is modernised for student use. The introduction places the play in the context of Jonson's later dramatic and poetic works and discusses the political context of the Caroline court. A performance history of the play and fresh material relating to its seventeenth-century reception are also provided. This edition by Peter Happè critically reappraises Jonson's much-neglected play and argues for its recognition as a work of real distinction.

Revels stuff. . . .|This Edition of George Chapman's tragedy differs from all other modern editions in being primarily based on the Quarto of 1607 in preference to the much revised Quarto of 1641. N. S. Brooke believes that the earlier text gives a more certain indication of Chapman's intentions and he has supported this view in an introduction and by a bibliographical and critical study of the play. The divergence between the texts of 1607 and 1641 are set out clearly in this volume, which includes the usual textual and critical apparatus found in the Revels series.

This edition of Jonson's great Roman tragedy is more intensively researched than any that has previously appeared. The text is based on extensive collation of the 1605 and 1616 versions and takes the earlier version as "copy-text." The introduction offers a radically new assessment of Jonson's "historiography" and his treatment of sources. It provides an explanation for the charge of treason leveled at Jonson over Sejanus and for which he had to answer to the Privy Council. Explanatory notes to the text provide much new information to facilitate a properly informed reading of the play.

Part of the major re-launch of MUP's most prestigious series.. The text is supported by variant readings, detailed notes, and a statistical breakdown of word use.. A number of these plays are being performed at the Globe Theatre and in rep as well as being set on a number of drama courses.. The acclaimed and most authoritative version of these plays thought of as the 'companion' to the Arden Shakespeare.. The only commercially available edition of the play currently in print.

Excellent Revels text now back in print at the new £9.99 price. Leading edition of this play by Ben Jonson - no other edition of this calibre at the moment. Professor Anthony Parr has a proven track record with the Three Jacobean Travel Plays (now in paperback at £14.99). The complete canon of Ben Jonson is being brought back into print in the Revels. The play itself is one of Jonson's best and has a prescient storyline about journalism being traduced and becoming entertainment instead of remaining factual.

The New Inn is one of the most neglected of Jonson's plays which is now finding a new and appreciative audience. May be read, according to this Editor's introduction, as a tribute to Shakespeare, and as a belated recognition that the fantasies of romance contain profound truths. The spelling has been modernised and the text updated and corrected for this paperback edition. There is also a critical introduction, helpful appendices and a commentary which explains difficult or significant passages within the play.

Now back in print after a lengthy absence, one of the most enduring plays of its time. Edited by the renowned scholar, and recent advisor to the Globe Theatre, Andrew Gurr. No real competition for this singular play. Joins the now very impressive roster of The Revels Plays, almost thirty of which are now in print.

This play is a celebration of London life and theatre in which Francis Beaumont's comic genius is given free rein. A grocer, his wife and their two apprentices attending the theatre in holiday mood interrupt and finally replace a fatuous love comedy with their own heart's desire: exotic spectacle and sound English sentiment.This edition presents an accurate modern-spelling text, with full historical and critical introduction and a detailed commentary. The introduction analyses the character of Beaumont's wit and his unsentimental critique of society and of society's stage image. It also places 'The Knight' in the contexts of Jacobean comedy and the work of the children's theatrical troupes. An appendix on the songs and a concern for details of production make this edition especially useful to actors and directors, as well as students of Renaissance drama.

Antonio and Mellida was the first play by John Marston performed by the newly revived Paul's Company in 1599. Marston sought to display a variety of talents, comic, tragic, satiric and historical, advertising his own dramatic skills and the prowess of the choristers of Paul's. The play is based on incidents in the reigns of Sforza, Francesco, Galeazzo and Lodovico, who were Dukes of Milan in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Marston displays a detailed knowledge of the dramatic works of Shakespeare, Seneca, Kyd and Nashe as well as the prose of Sidney, Erasmus, Montaigne, Florio and others.This edition relates the play to a wide variety of literary contexts. It also includes a comprehensive introduction, an analysis of staging, and full commentary. The text is based on a collation of all known copies of the 1602 Quarto and is presented in a thoroughly modernised format.

His last known work and the only one to be written primarily in verse, The Woman in the Moon is among Lyly’s most entertaining plays. Turning upon the construction of the female character, it has been read as highly misogynistic, and as a sixteenth-century feminist manifesto. The biblical version of the creation of woman is overturned in the first scene when the play’s supreme deity, Nature, presents her ultimate creation, Pandora (memorably played in 1928 by Katharine Hepburn), to a group of Utopian shepherds, who compete for her love. Their amatory pursuit is complicated by the seven planets, whose attributes have been bestowed by Nature on her new creation, and who decide to take revenge by subjecting Pandora to their influence. The action rapidly develops into a dazzling comedy of intrigue, resulting in both an explanation for the female disposition and the creation of an ‘alternative’ version of the myth of the man in the moon.Newly edited from the first edition (1597), The Woman in the Moon will be of interest to all students of sixteenth-century drama. It is complemented by generous notes and commentary, as well as a full introduction and stage history.

First performed in the 1580s, Love's Metamorphosis is widely regarded as the most elegantly structured of Lyly's plays. The plot looks back to the account of Erisichthon's punishment for the desecration of Ceres' grove in Ovid's Metamorphosis, but the Ovidian story is woven into a wider network of interests turning upon aspects of love. A series of allusions to earlier Lylian compositions allows the play to be viewed in terms of a continuum of work, exploring the status of Cupid and the nature and extent of his power. The play is notable for the articulate resistance offered by the female characters towards the desires of their lovers and the wishes of authority figures, while Protea, is of particular interest to feminist criticism as a striking example of a woman empowered rather than marginalised by the loss of her virgin state. Revived towards the close of the sixteenth century, the play is of importance to theatre historians in that it is the only one of Lyly's comedies known to have passed from Paul's to a different troupe. It is newly edited here from the sole early witness, the quarto of 1601.

More widely studied and more frequently performed than ever before, John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi is here presented in an improved, accessible and throughly up-to-date edition. Starting with the authoritative Revels Plays edition of 1964, John Russell Brown has augmented the notes and collations, and casts new light on Webster's dramatic dialogue and on the stage action. An entirely new introduction encompasses a stage history from its well-documented early performances right through to recent productions in the twenty first century. The bibliography has also been expanded.Students, actors, directors, academics and theatre-goers will find here a reappraisal of Webster's artistry in the greatest age of English theatre.