The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare and Contemporary Dramatists (Cambridge Companions to Literature)

Cambridge University Press
Edition: Illustrated, 10/11/2012
EAN 9780521767545, ISBN10: 0521767547

Hardcover, 326 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 1.9 cm
Language: English
Originally published in English

While Shakespeare's popularity has continued to grow, so has the attention paid to the work of his contemporaries. The contributors to this Companion introduce the distinctive drama of these playwrights, from the court comedies of John Lyly to the works of Richard Brome in the Caroline era. With chapters on a wide range of familiar and lesser-known dramatists, including Thomas Kyd, Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson, John Webster, Thomas Middleton and John Ford, this book devotes particular attention to their personal and professional relationships, occupational rivalries and collaborations. Overturning the popular misconception that Shakespeare wrote in isolation, it offers a new perspective on the most impressive body of drama in the history of the English stage.

1. John Lyly and the university wits
George Peele, Robert Greene, Thomas Lodge and Thomas Nashe Arthur F. Kinney
2. Thomas Kyd and the Elizabethan blockbuster
The Spanish Tragedy Clara Calvo
3. 'The words of mercury'
Shakespeare and Marlowe Richard Wilson
4. The dyer's hand
Shakespeare and Jonson Warren Chernaik
5. Urbane John Marston
obscenity, playfulness, co-operation Matthew Steggle
6. Thomas Dekker and the emergence of city comedy Darryll Grantley
7. Shakespeare
colleagues, collaborators, co-authors Ton Hoenselaars
8. Thomas Heywood
dramatist of London and playwright of the passions Jean E. Howard
9. George Chapman's learned drama Paul Franssen
10. Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher's tragicomedy as musical melodrama Catherine Henze
11. Thomas Middleton and the early modern theatre Michelle O'Callaghan
12. John Webster
collaboration and solitude Robert Henke
13. John Ford
suffering and silence in Perkin Warbeck and 'Tis Pity She's a Whore Lisa Hopkins
14. Philip Massinger
drama, reputation, and the dynamics of social history Rui Carvalho Homem
15. Richard Brome and the idea of a Caroline theatre Heather Hirschfeld
16. Troublesome histories
performance and early modern drama Elizabeth Schafer.