'Let him kill a lion with a pestle, husband; let him kill a lion with a pestle.'

So exclaims the Grocer's wife who, with her husband and servants, is attending one of the London's elite playhouses where a theatre comany has just begun to perform. Peeved at the fact that all the plays they see are satires on the lives and values of London's citizenry, the Grocer and his wife interrupt and demand a play that instead contains chivalric quests and courtly love. What's more, they nominate their apprentice Rafe to take on the hero's role of the knight in this entirely new play.

The...

Philaster is a tragicomedy by Beaumont and Fletcher which has much in common with Shakespeare's late plays such as The Winter's Tale. Set in a fictionalized Sicily, it has the complex plot of love, disguise and the threat of death much loved by early modern theatre-goers.

This edition provides an authoritative, modernized text by a leading scholar with detailed on-page commentary notes giving readers a deeper understanding of the play. The comprehensive, illustrated introduction discusses Philaster from a performance perspective as well as its relation to Shakespearean...