Farquhar's last two plays, The Recruiting Officer and The Beaux'Stratagem, have been called 'the last worthwhile comedies of theRestoration tradition'. Written during Farquhar's stint in Shrewsburyas part of a recruiting mission in 1704-5, The Recruiting Officer is abuoyant, whimsical piece stocked by a fairly conventional cast ofcharacters: the rake-hero and his spirited lady (who dons breeches inthe course of the action), his sober friend and the heroine's seriousfriend, the buffoon/coxcomb and his ill-fated amorous or heroicventures. What makes the play entertaining is Farquhar's light,...
Farquhar's last two plays, The Recruiting Officer and The Beaux'Stratagem, have been called 'the last worthwhile comedies of theRestoration traditi...
The Witch (1615/16?), categorised by its author as 'a tragi-comedy', pits the intrigues of a group of Italian aristocrats against themalevolent practices of Hecate and her witches' coven, leaving theaudience with the impression that human malevolence is by far thefiercer and more effective. This edition sets the play into itsdramatic and literary contexts, ranging from Shakespeare's Macbeth andMiddleton's own later tragedies to Reginald Scot's sceptical Discoveryof Witchcraft and King James's virulent Daemonologie. It also arguesthat Middleton wrote it as a topical satire to capitalise on...
The Witch (1615/16?), categorised by its author as 'a tragi-comedy', pits the intrigues of a group of Italian aristocrats against themalevolent pra...
It is a historical phenomenon that while thousands of women were beingburnt as witches in early modern Europe, the English - although therewere a few celebrated trials and executions, one of which the playdramatises - were not widely infected by the witch-craze. The stageseems to have provided an outlet for anxieties about witchcraft, aswell as an opportunity for public analysis. The Witch of Edmonton(1621) manifests this fundamentally reasonable attitude, with Dekkerinsisting on justice for the poor and oppressed, Ford providingpsychological character studies, and Rowley the clowning. The...
It is a historical phenomenon that while thousands of women were beingburnt as witches in early modern Europe, the English - although therewere a f...
Like all of Jonson's city comedies, this play - here given in the 1616 Folio version, in which Jonson rewrote and set it in England, not Italy - is a kind of dramatised Do-It-Yourself kit on how to bluff one's way in Elizabethan London. Although Roman New Comedy, in which a crafty slave helps a wild youngster to marry the girl of his choice against his father's wishes, supplies Jonson with his basic plot, the world that he presents here is thoroughly contemporary and mundane. The characters' 'humours' - their driving obsessions - may vary, but all of them strive to represent something...
Like all of Jonson's city comedies, this play - here given in the 1616 Folio version, in which Jonson rewrote and set it in England, not Italy - is...
Although it was written shortly before or after Queen Elizabeth's deathin 1603 and performed by the boy company at Blackfriars, this playforeshadows the light ladies and callous gallants of Restorationcomedy. Passion is a scourge, love is humiliation, and friends might aswell be enemies. Freevill discards his concubine Franceschina and, fora joke, sets his straight-laced friend Malheureux on to her, who fallsfor her and promises to carry out her revenge on Freevill by killinghim. The play in the theatre, which is fully imagined in theintroduction to this edition, impresses on the audience...
Although it was written shortly before or after Queen Elizabeth's deathin 1603 and performed by the boy company at Blackfriars, this playforeshadow...
The Importance of Being Earnest is one of the most enduringly popular of British comic dramas, and a mainstay of English literature and drama courses at college and university level. This is an ideal edition for students with on-page notes to help clarify meaning, and a completely new introduction. In the new introduction, Francesca Coppa explores recent critical approaches to the play, including queer and postcolonial readings, as well as giving the context in which the play was written and how it relates to Wilde's personal life and public persona. The introduction also discusses the...
The Importance of Being Earnest is one of the most enduringly popular of British comic dramas, and a mainstay of English literature and drama c...
