The Cambridge Companion to English Renaissance Drama

by Edited by A. R. Braunmuller , Michael Hattaway

• ISBN13: 9780521821155
• ISBN10: 0521821150
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-10-06
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This second edition of the Companion offers students up-to-date factual and interpretative material about the principal theatres, playwrights and plays of the most important period of English drama, from 1580-1642. Three wide-ranging chapters on theatres, dramaturgy and the social, cultural and political conditions of the drama are followed by chapters describing and illustrating various theatrical genres: private and occasional drama, political plays, heroic plays, burlesque, comedy, tragedy, with a final essay on the drama produced during the reign of Charles I. All the essays have been revised and their references updated. An expanded biographical and bibliographical section details the work of the dramatists discussed in the book and the best sources for further study. A chronological table provides a full listing of new plays performed from 1497-1642, with a parallel list of major political and theatrical events.

Table of Contents

List of plates	vii
List of contributors	ix
Preface to first edition	xi
Preface to second edition	xv
A note on dates, references, and quotations	xvi
List of abbreviations	xvii
1 Playhouses and players	1	(52)
R.A. FOAKES
2. The arts of the dramatist	53	(40)
A.R. BRAUNMULLER
3 Drama and society	93	(38)
MICHAEL HATTAWAY
4 Private and occasional drama	131	(33)
MARTIN BUTLER
5 Political drama	164	(33)
MARGOT HEINEMANN
6 Romance and the heroic play	197	(31)
BRIAN GIBBONS
7 Pastiche, burlesque, tragicomedy	228	(26)
LEE BLISS
8 Comedy	254	(38)
JILL LEVENSON
9 Tragedy	292	(52)
ROBERT N. WATSON
10 Caroline drama	344	(28)
JAMES BULMAN
Biographies and select bibliography	372	(48)
Chronological table	420	(28)
Indices	448