The Cambridge Companion to Medieval English Theatre

by Edited by Richard Beadle , Alan J. Fletcher

• ISBN13: 9780521682541
• ISBN10: 0521682541
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-07-14
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

The drama of the English Middle Ages is perennially popular with students and theatre audiences alike, and this is an updated edition of a book which has established itself as a standard guide to the field. The Cambridge Companion to Medieval English Theatre, second edition, continues to provide an authoritative introduction and an up-to-date, illustrated guide to the mystery cycles, morality drama and saints' plays which flourished from the late fourteenth to the mid-sixteenth centuries. The book emphasises regional diversity in the period and engages with the literary and particularly the theatrical values of the plays. Existing chapters have been revised and updated where necessary, and there are three entirely new chapters, including one on the cultural significance of early drama. A thoroughly revised reference section includes a guide to scholarship and criticism, an enlarged classified bibliography and a chronological table.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations	p. vii
List of contributors	p. x
Preface	p. xi
List of abbreviations	p. xvi
System of reference and list of editions of plays cited in the text	p. xvii
Chronological table	p. xix
An introduction to medieval English theatre	p. 1
The theatricality of medieval English plays	p. 26
The cultural work of early drama	p. 75
The York Corpus Christi Play	p. 99
The Chester cycle	p. 125
The Towneley pageants	p. 152
The N-Town plays	p. 183
The non-cycle plays and the East Anglian tradition	p. 211
Morality plays	p. 235
Saints and miracles	p. 263
Modern productions of medieval English drama	p. 287
A guide to criticism of medieval English theatre	p. 326
Select bibliography	p. 361
Author index to the bibliography	p. 389
General index	p. 393
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