Revels Student Editions – serie

Based on the original and authoritative Revels texts, Plays on women brings together four plays which dramatise the lives of women in Shakespeare’s EnglandThe only available anthology focusing on women and including the four plays most often discussed. . . .

The "revenge" play became the most durable and commercially successful type of drama on the Elizabethan stage. This example by Thomas Kyd, who was one of the originators of the genre, brings to life the intrigues of the Spanish court, dramatically juxtaposing romantic passion with sudden violent death and clandestine politics. The ghost of Dan Andrea and his guide Revenge observe the dark and bloody action throughout, provoking questions about the nature of the human condition.

Women Beware Women is among the most powerful and adroitly plotted of Jacobean tragedies. Written by Thomas Middleton, a later contemporary of Shakespeare, the play deals with topics of enduring fascination such as sexual and financial greed, the sexual exploitation of women by a manipulative older woman, murderous revenge and the sexual predatoriness of a man in a position of power. The storyline is based on the most public of Medici scandals in late sixteenth-century Florence, with the Grand Duke Francesco seducing and then marrying a beautiful Venetian runaway, after arranging the murder of her Florentine lower-class husband. The tragedy ends with a spectacular masque involving misdirected poison, flaming gold, poisoned arrows, poisoned smoke, physical mishaps and numerous deaths.This edition is designed for the classroom and for the reader interested in the best in Renaissance drama.

In this study of sexual and political intrigue, a fascinating but dangerous woman consents to the murder of her ineffectual husband. Her defence against the charge of adultery transforms the lurid tale of crime into high tragedy.A compellingly dangerous and fascinating play with a comprehensive set of notes and criticism.

More widely studied and more frequently performed than ever before, John Webster's The Duchesss of Malfi is here presented in an accessible and thoroughly up-to-date edition. Based on the often reprinted Revels Plays Edition of 1964, the notes have been augmented to cast further light on Webster's amazing dialogue and on the stage action which it implies. An entirely new introduction sets the tragedy in the context of pre-Civil War England and gives a revealing view of its themes, action and visual imagery. From its well-documented early performances to the two productions seen in the West End of London in the 1995-96 season, a stage history gives an account of the play in performance. Students, actors, directors and theatre-goers will find here a reappraisal of Webster's artistry in the tragedy which stands in the very first rank of plays from perhaps the greatest age of English theatre, and reasons why it has lived on stage with renewed force in the last decades of the twentieth century.

John Ford's tragedy, first printed in 1633, is the first major English play to take as its theme a subject still rarely handled: fulfilled incest between brother and sister. It is one of the most studied and performed of all plays of the period, and has been successfully adapted for film and radio. The Revels plays edition by Derek Roper has been the standard scholarly edition since it appeared in 1975. This new edition uses the same authoritative text, but with notes designed for modern undergraduate use. The substantial introduction has been completely rewritten to take account of the studies and new approaches of the last twenty years. It presents the play as an 'interrogative text', in which subversive meanings are inscribed within an apparently orthodox narrative; as a courageous treatment of forbidden love; and as an achieved work of Baroque art.

This play depicts a morally corrupt world where the desire for justice is contaminated by the obsession for revenge. The characters take pleasure in watching adultery, incest and murder. The play's chief moral spokesman, Vindice, is at the same time enamoured of and disgusted by, the luxury of the court. Locating the play in relation to the best recent criticism, and exploring its complexities with a contemporary eye, furthers the reputation of these comprehensive student editions.

Competitive price and format. Compacted and up-to-date version of the earlier Revels Plays edition by the same editor, taking account of more recent critical works. A key Renaissance text.

Of all of Jonson's plays, Bartholomew Fair with its focus on the conflict between a carnivalesque enjoyment of the flesh and society's desire for order and control, speaks most directly to the modern audience. This edition is the first to use the findings of feminist scholarship in examining the play's concern with forced marriage, pregnancy, sexual commerce and widowhood. Glosses and notes are provided for students and theatre-goers clarifying the language and dialects Jonson uses to individualise the characters in his prose masterpiece and helpfully explicating layers of meaning and topical references.

This edition contains in distilled form the insight and learning found iun the fuller Revels critical edition, but with less of the learned apparatus that is appropriate to a critical edition. The introduction and commentary are compact and up to date. The price and format are designed to be competitive with any paperback teaching edition of this play.

This edition contains in distilled form the insight and learning found in the fuller Revels critical editions, but with less of the learning apparatus that is appropriate to a critical edition. Compact and up to date introduction and commentary. The price and format are designed to be competitive with any paperback teaching edition of this play.

The Witch of Edmonton has received considerable attention recently both from scholars and critics interested in witchcraft practices and also from the directors in the theatre. The play, based on a sensational witchcraft trial of 1621, presents Mother Sawyer and her local community in the grip of a witch-mania reflecting popular belief and superstition of the time. This edition offers a thorough reconsideration of the text with a complete transcription of the original pamphlet by Henry Goodcole. This edition will be of particular interest not only to students of Renaissance Drama but also of the cultural history of the seventeenth century.. Open University adopted text (for their new Renaissance Drama module).

Accessible edition of the play considered to be Marston's masterpiece. This is one of the most original and complex plays of the Elizabethan theatre - complex in genre, structure and language. Uses the same authoritative text as the standard Revels edition with glosses to help the student understand the play's textual complexities. The introduction has been re-written to take account of recent scholarship.

This is the first edition for students and general readers of this pro-woman reply to Shakespeare's 'The Taming of the Shrew' by a playwright (John Fletcher) who was more admired than Shakespeare in the seventeenth century.Co-edited by a feminist critic and a distinguished textual scholar, this new textbook makes clear why "The Tamer Tamed" should be restored to the theatrical repertoire and the literary canon. It includes the fullest commentary ever provided for the play, explaining for modern students Fletcher's verbal exuberance and his uninhibited sexual language. The full critical introduction describes the play's Renaissance context, its historical and literary sources (including Aristophanes's "Lysistrata"), and its subversive relationship to Shakespeare's "Shrew" and Ben Jonson's "The Silent Woman". It also surveys the play's subsequent theatrical and critical history.A unique and essential companion to the numerous textbook editions of Shakespeare's play, "The Tamer Tamed" provides exciting new material for current debates about the history of gender, marriage, and drama.

Expanded footnotes designed to help readers from all levels of familiarity with Elizabethan drama. Emphasis on the play as a theatre text - informative stage-directions. Stimulating introduction, which makes something of a break from the orthodox style .

Masques of difference presents an annotated edition of four seventeenth-century entertainments written by Ben Jonson for the court of James I. These masques reflect both the confidence and the anxieties of the English aristocracy at a time when notions of monarchy, empire, and national identity were being radically redefined. All four masques reflect the royal court’s self-representation as moral, orderly, and just, in contrast to stylised images of chaotically (and exotically) 'othered' groups: Africans, the Irish, witches, and the homoeroticised figure of the Gypsy. This edition presents two masques that have received recent attention in the classroom - The Masque of Blackness and The Masque of Queens - and two that have never before been anthologised for the student reader - The Irish Masque at Court and The Masque of the Gypsies Metamorphosed. This anthology offers students the latest in scholarship and critical theory and essential clues for understanding the ideologies that shaped many of the modern structures of English culture.

Dr. Faustus is one of the jewels of early modern English drama, and is still widely performed today. Interestingly, the play has come down to the contemporary audience in two distinct versions that have become known as the 'A' and the 'B' texts. David Bevington and Eric Rasmussen, who edited the original Revels edition over twenty years ago (and are two of the most eminent editors currently working), have hit upon the fascinating idea of presenting both texts on facing pages. This allows readers to compare the two ‘versions’, the ‘A’ text which is the one closest to Marlowe, and the longer ‘B’ text with additions by Samuel Rowley; in this unique edition, the reader is made aware of the changing tastes of audiences, the stage history of the play, and of just how intricate ‘editing’ a play can be.With a concise and illuminating introduction, and relevant notes and images, this Revels Student Edition of the 'A' and 'B' texts of Dr. Faustus will prove to be an enthralling document, and an excellent edition for student and theatre-goer alike.