A King and No King; Beaumont and Fletcher

by Edited by Lee Bliss

• ISBN13: 9780719058639
• ISBN10: 0719058635
• Format: Trade Book
• Copyright: 2004-11-27
• Publisher: Manchester University Press

Summary

A King and No Kinghelped establish tragicomedy as the seventeenth century's favored dramatic genre, and Beaumont and Fletcher as leading playwrights of the day. Accompanying this fully annotated edition, an introduction explores the play's sources, both literary and dramatic, and offers a thorough reconsideration of its relation to its social and political context, and contemporary issues of royal absolutism, good governance, and the political role of the aristocracy. In addition, the introduction provides the fullest available account of the play's stage history, tracing the shifts in cultural mores that eroded its popularity and ultimately consigned it to the study rather than the stage.

Author Biography

Lee Bliss is Professor of English at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Table of Contents

GENERAL EDITORS' PREFACE	vi
ABBREVIATIONS	viii
INTRODUCTION	1	(56)
The authors	1	(4)
The date	5	(1)
Sources	5	(5)
Tragicomedy and The Faithful Shepherdess	10	(4)
The play	14	(17)
Stage history	31	(9)
The text	40	(17)
A KING AND NO KING	57	(120)
APPENDIX Lineation	177	(8)
INDEX	185