"Contexts and Sources" includes dueling arguments on the play's completeness (one play or one half of a play?) and the naming of a central character (Falstaff or Oldcastle?) "Criticism" includes twenty-four essays--from E. M. W. Tillyard's classic argument of an ordered Shakespearean universe to Graham Holderness's rebuttal to Gus Van Sant's interview regarding1 Henry IV as the inspiration for his cult film, My Own Private Idaho--nineteen of them new to the Third Edition. The Selected Bibliography has been thoroughly updated.

What do we mean when we speak of the 'late style' of a given writer, artist or composer? And what exactly do we mean by 'late Shakespeare'? Gordon McMullan argues that, far from being a natural phenomenon common to a handful of geniuses in old age or in proximity to death, late style is in fact a critical construct. Taking Shakespeare as his exemplar, he maps the development of the 'discourse of lateness' from the eighteenth century to the present, noting not only the mismatch between that discourse and the actual conditions for authorship in early modern theatre but also its generativity for...

In English literary and historical studies the border between the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, and hence between 'medieval' and 'early modern' studies, has become increasingly permeable. Written by an international group of medievalists and early modernists, the essays in this volume examine the ways in which medieval culture was read and reconstructed by writers, editors and scholars in early modern England. It also addresses the reciprocal process: the way in which early modern England, while apparently suppressing the medieval past, was in fact shaped and constructed by it,...

John Fletcher was Shakespeare's successor as chief playwright for the King's Company and wrote or collaborated on 54 plays. This book focuses on the social and political tensions that motivate his plays, and argues that knowledge of his works is essential to an understanding of Renaissance drama.

In English literary and historical studies the border between the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, and hence between 'medieval' and 'early modern' studies, has become increasingly permeable. Written by an international group of medievalists and early modernists, the essays in this volume examine the ways in which medieval culture was read and reconstructed by writers, editors and scholars in early modern England. It also addresses the reciprocal process: the way in which early modern England, while apparently suppressing the medieval past, was in fact shaped and constructed by it,...

What do we mean when we speak of the 'late style' of a given writer, artist or composer? And what exactly do we mean by 'late Shakespeare'? Gordon McMullan argues that, far from being a natural phenomenon common to a handful of geniuses in old age or in proximity to death, late style is in fact a critical construct. Taking Shakespeare as his exemplar, he maps the development of the 'discourse of lateness' from the eighteenth century to the present, noting not only the mismatch between that discourse and the actual conditions for authorship in early modern theatre but also its generativity for...

An annotated edition of Marlowe's much-studied drama of pasion and politics which gives students a wealth of contextual and critical insight as well as examining the play in performance. Marlowe's possible status as spy, atheist,double-agent, blasphemer, counterfeiter, and/or queer has made him seem not just of an age, but of our time as well.