Focusing on Jacobean private theatre, the author explores the polarization of taste and its impact on literary criticism and theatre history. This scholarly yet entertaining work, first published in 1987, offers valuable insights for students of English Literature, Drama, and Performance, highlighting the cultural dynamics of the era.
Elizabethan domestic tragedies depicted the workings of Fortune in the lives of ordinary people, telling stories of sin, discovery, punishment and divine mercy, with their settings and characterization often enhanced by a blend of realism and sensationalism. Based on chronicles or pamphlets this title describes authentic murders.
This unique edition brings together four plays concerned with 'domestic' themes: Arden of Faversham, Heywood's A Woman Killed with Kindness and The English Traveller, and Dekker, Rowley and Ford's The Witch of Edmonton. Texts are in modern spelling, accompanied by a critical introduction, wide-ranging annotation and bibliography.
The real-life witches had not even come to trial before this dramatization was performed at the original Globe in 1634. Everything is going wrong at a wedding and everyone believes that a local coven is to blame. The play mocks the naivete of those who cannot see what is under their noses.