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 35
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... actors, the familiar situations and the running gags, suggest aneed to play for safety. Sometimes a strip is worthclipping out,a program (or a whole series) is worth taping and saving.But ingeneral the product,taking few risks and ...
... actors, the familiar situations and the running gags, suggest aneed to play for safety. Sometimes a strip is worthclipping out,a program (or a whole series) is worth taping and saving.But ingeneral the product,taking few risks and ...
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... acting companies under royal patronage; Shakespeare's company, the Chamberlain's Men,becomes the King'sMen c. 1604 Marston, The Malcontent; Shakespeare, Measurefor Measure 1606 Jonson, Volpone c. 1608 Shakespeare, Pericles c. 1609 ...
... acting companies under royal patronage; Shakespeare's company, the Chamberlain's Men,becomes the King'sMen c. 1604 Marston, The Malcontent; Shakespeare, Measurefor Measure 1606 Jonson, Volpone c. 1608 Shakespeare, Pericles c. 1609 ...
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... actor. Both varieties of wit “upon facts” dependon formsof representation closely akin to the drama: inthe first case on “continuous irony, wherein thecharacters and individuals aresketched and soportrayed” and in thesecond on “the ...
... actor. Both varieties of wit “upon facts” dependon formsof representation closely akin to the drama: inthe first case on “continuous irony, wherein thecharacters and individuals aresketched and soportrayed” and in thesecond on “the ...
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... the poetor thedrama or an actor.”In addition, he augments Donatus' accounts oftheepitasis andthe catastrophe, definingthe former as “the development andtheenlargement ofthe conflict and, as it were, the knot of all error,” and the latter.
... the poetor thedrama or an actor.”In addition, he augments Donatus' accounts oftheepitasis andthe catastrophe, definingthe former as “the development andtheenlargement ofthe conflict and, as it were, the knot of all error,” and the latter.
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... Actors continues tocitethese sources; Ben Jonson's Prologueto EveryManin his Humour brings together a series of related critical commonplaces inpromising “deedes,and language, such asmendoevse, /Andpersons, suchas Comoedie would chuse ...
... Actors continues tocitethese sources; Ben Jonson's Prologueto EveryManin his Humour brings together a series of related critical commonplaces inpromising “deedes,and language, such asmendoevse, /Andpersons, suchas Comoedie would chuse ...
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