The Cambridge Companion to Shakespearean ComedyAlexander Leggatt First published in 2001, this is an accessible, wide-ranging and informed introduction to Shakespeare's comedies and romances. Rather than taking each play in isolation, the chapters trace recurring issues, suggesting both the continuity and the variety of Shakespeare's practice and the creative use he made of the conventions he inherited. The first section puts Shakespeare in the context of classical and Renaissance comedy and comic theory, the work of his Elizabethan predecessors and the traditions of popular festivity. The second section traces a number of themes through Shakespeare's early and middle comedies, dark comedies and late romances, establishing the key features of his comedy as a whole and illuminating particular plays by close analysis. Individual chapters draw on contemporary politics, rhetoric, and the history of Shakespeare production. Written by experts in the relevant fields, the chapters frequently challenge long-standing critical assumptions. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 21
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... Terence, Terence in English, published c. 1599 The Globe playhouse opens;Shakespeare's principal clown Will Kempe leaves the company; his successor isRobert Armin Jonson, Every Man outof hisHumour; Shakespeare, As You Like It 1600 A ...
... Terence, Terence in English, published c. 1599 The Globe playhouse opens;Shakespeare's principal clown Will Kempe leaves the company; his successor isRobert Armin Jonson, Every Man outof hisHumour; Shakespeare, As You Like It 1600 A ...
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... Terence, he was also theauthor oftheArs Major andArs Minor, two ofthemost importantLatin grammars used in the schools. There are two essays on the theatre: one, “On Drama,” was considered by earlyscholarsto be by Donatus but is now ...
... Terence, he was also theauthor oftheArs Major andArs Minor, two ofthemost importantLatin grammars used in the schools. There are two essays on the theatre: one, “On Drama,” was considered by earlyscholarsto be by Donatus but is now ...
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... Terence in mind, Euanthius stresses itsmore elaborately wrought fiction andartifice: “This kindofpoem wasconcerned with more typical situations and in general terms with men who live a middle class life. It gave the spectator less ...
... Terence in mind, Euanthius stresses itsmore elaborately wrought fiction andartifice: “This kindofpoem wasconcerned with more typical situations and in general terms with men who live a middle class life. It gave the spectator less ...
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... Terence,played animportant role in theschool curriculum.As Erasmus explained inOn the Method of Study (1512), “[A]mong Latin writers who is more valuable as a standard of language than Terence? Heispure, concise, and closest to everyday ...
... Terence,played animportant role in theschool curriculum.As Erasmus explained inOn the Method of Study (1512), “[A]mong Latin writers who is more valuable as a standard of language than Terence? Heispure, concise, and closest to everyday ...
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... Terence prepared by the French humanist printer Badius Ascensius reflects these developments. Badius'Praenotamenta was first printed in 1502andcontinued topreface editions ofTerence throughoutthe first partofthe century.19He begins by ...
... Terence prepared by the French humanist printer Badius Ascensius reflects these developments. Badius'Praenotamenta was first printed in 1502andcontinued topreface editions ofTerence throughoutthe first partofthe century.19He begins by ...
Contents
Roman comedy | |
Italian stories on the stage | |
Elizabethan comedy | |
Forms of confusion | |
JOHN CREASER 7 Love andcourtship | |
Laughing at others | |
Comedy and | |
Language and comedy | |
Matters of state | |
ANTHONY MILLER 13 The experimentof romance | |
Select bibliography | |
Common terms and phrases
action actor andthe Angelo Aristotle’s asthe atthe audience Barabas Benedick Berowne boy player bythe Caliban Cambridge Companion characters classical clown Comedy of Errors commedia confusion conventions court courtship crossdressed Cymbeline death disguise dramatic Duke edited Elizabethan England English Euanthius Falstaff Friar Ganymed gender genre Gentlemen Gentlemen of Verona heroines human identity inhis inthe Italian Jachimo Jonson language laughter literary London Love’s Labor’s Lost lovers Lyly Lyly’s Malvolio marriage Measure for Measure Merchant of Venice Merry Midsummer Night’s Dream moral narrative ofcomedy ofthe Olivia onthe Orlando Orsino’s Oxford pastoral performance Pericles Petruchio Plautus play play’s playwrights plot Posthumus Prospero Renaissance rhetorical role romance Rosalind scene sexual Shakespeare Shakespeare’s comedies Shakespeare’s comic Shrew Shylock social speech stage story Taming Tempest Terence theatre theatregrams theatrical theplay tobe tothe tradition tragedy Twelfth Night University Press Verona Viola Windsor Winter’s Tale withthe woman women words