THIS WONDERFUL ANTHOLOGY CONTAINS THESE 21 PLAYS:,
2005-06-03
by sky (Colorado)
Tourneur -- The Revenger's Tragedy
Jonson -- Volpone
Jonson -- Epicoene
Jonson -- The Alchemist
Jonson -- Bartholomew Fair
Marston -- The Dutch Courtesan
Chapman -- Bussy D'Ambois
Chapman -- The Widow's Tears
Dekker & Middleton -- The Roaring Girl
Middleton -- A Chaste Maid in Cheapside
Middleton & Rowley -- The Changeling
Webster -- The Duchess of Malfi
Webster -- The White Devil
Beaumont -- The Knight of the Burning Pestle
Beaumont & Fletcher -- A King and No King
Fletcher -- The Wild-Goose Chase
Ford -- Perkin Warbeck
Ford -- 'Tis Pity She's a Whore
Massinger -- A New Way to Pay Old Debts
Massinger -- The Roman Actor
Shirley -- Hyde Park
And note that volume 1 (ISBN 0023395702) contains an additional 20 plays.
This two-volume set is actually a more convenient and more economical way to collect 41 plays than piecing together single plays in the New Mermaids, Regents Renaissance, or Revels series. In fact, many of the plays in this two-volume set are not otherwise available.
This book is an embarrasment of riches -- enjoy!
A nearly lost treasure-trove...,
2004-04-30
This volume (w/ its companion) covers the other people who were writing plays at the time of Shakespeare. And there are at least two things to be said about that: 1) even if Shakespeare had never been born, this period probably still represents the most vibrant, remarkable body of writing for the stage the English language has ever produced; 2) the fact that Shakespeare was born means that these wonderful plays go mostly unread. (If you've seen "Shakespeare in Love," you get a sense of the vitality of "the scene.") This is Great Stuff! From the lyric power of Marlowe's verse, to the learned wit of Jonson's comedy and the purgative bloodletting of Webster and Tourneur, an entire world of theater is put before you in these volumes, a cosmos beyond the Globe. These authors are not interesting merely as context: there are examples in here of people doing things Shakespeare couldn't do. And even if you come away thinking the Bard was still the best of the lot, you'll have a rich appreciation of just what an accomplishment that is.