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 54
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... plot materialfrom The Taming oftheShrew into the worldof modern American teenagers. While the play deals with marriage and its expectation ofa lasting relationship, the moviedeals with dating, the onlyexpectationbeing that one datemay ...
... plot materialfrom The Taming oftheShrew into the worldof modern American teenagers. While the play deals with marriage and its expectation ofa lasting relationship, the moviedeals with dating, the onlyexpectationbeing that one datemay ...
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... plot,true to lifein characterization, useful inits sentiments, delightful for itswit, andaptinits prosody” (“OnDrama,” 42). Both Euanthius and Donatus discuss the structural elements of Terentian comedy, using a set of terms which would ...
... plot,true to lifein characterization, useful inits sentiments, delightful for itswit, andaptinits prosody” (“OnDrama,” 42). Both Euanthius and Donatus discuss the structural elements of Terentian comedy, using a set of terms which would ...
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... plot, together with the parallel insistence thata comedy be comprised offive acts,provided Renaissance Europe with theessential vocabulary andthe structural understanding of the genre which would inform the theory of comedy throughout ...
... plot, together with the parallel insistence thata comedy be comprised offive acts,provided Renaissance Europe with theessential vocabulary andthe structural understanding of the genre which would inform the theory of comedy throughout ...
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... plots, the successful comic poet ought nonetheless to aim to impart “individual characteristics even within these general types.”17 In the early Renaissance, most criticism ofTerence, and ofcomedy in general, derived muchof itsmaterial ...
... plots, the successful comic poet ought nonetheless to aim to impart “individual characteristics even within these general types.”17 In the early Renaissance, most criticism ofTerence, and ofcomedy in general, derived muchof itsmaterial ...
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... plot is faulty.I callthat plot episodic in which many things are inserted over and above the one actionthatwas set upin the beginning .. .Since the imitation of Comedy isnot onlyof lowandtrifling affairs, suchas takeplace in the ...
... plot is faulty.I callthat plot episodic in which many things are inserted over and above the one actionthatwas set upin the beginning .. .Since the imitation of Comedy isnot onlyof lowandtrifling affairs, suchas takeplace in the ...
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