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During the eighteenth century, theatrical writing developed as a genre. The publishing market responded to a seemingly insatiable appetite for accounts of the personalities, social lives and performances of celebrated entertainers. This series features actors who were significant in their development of new ways of performing Shakespeare.
English Theatrical Anecdotes, 1660-1800 explores the theatrical anecdote's role in the construction of stage fame in England's emergent celebrity culture during the long eighteenth century, as well as the challenges of employing anecdotes in theatre scholarship today. Chapters in this book discuss anecdotes about actors, actresses, musicians, and other theatre people.
An energetic woman, Inchbald achieved fame as an actress, novelist, playwright and critic. This work includes her eleven surviving diaries, which record Inchbald's social contacts and professional activities, itemize her day-to-day expenditure, and chart the development of affairs such as the Napoleonic Wars and the trial of Queen Caroline.
An original study of the relationship between comic acting and the visual arts in late-Georgian and Regency England.
An energetic woman, Inchbald achieved fame as an actress, novelist, playwright and critic. This work includes her eleven surviving diaries, which record Inchbald's social contacts and professional activities, itemize her day-to-day expenditure, and chart the development of affairs such as the Napoleonic Wars and the trial of Queen Caroline.
This book is a study of the representation of the Persian empire in English drama across the early modern period, from the 1530s to the 1690s. The wide focus of this book, encompassing thirteen dramatic entertainments, both canonical and little-known, allow it to trace the changes and developments in the dramatic use of Persia and its people across one and a half centuries. It explores what Persia signified to English playwrights and audiences in this period; the ideas and associations conjured up by mention of ‘Persia’; and where information about Persia came from. It also considers how ideas about Persia changed with the development of global travel and trade, as English people came into people with Persians for the first time. In addressing these issues, this book provides an examination not only of the representation of Persia in dramatic material, but of the broader relationship between travel, politics and the theatre in early modern England.
Tom Lockwood's study is the first examination of Jonson's place in the texts and culture of the Romantic age. Part one of the book explores theatrical, critical, and editorial responses to Jonson, including his place in the post-Garrick theatre, critical estimations of his life and work, and the politically-charged making and reception of William Gifford's 1816 edition of Jonson's Works. Part two explores allusive and imitative responses to Jonson's poetry and plays in the writings of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and explores how Jonson serves variously as a model by which to measure the poet laureate, Robert Southey, and Coleridge's eldest son, Hartley. The introduction and conclusion locate this 'Romantic Jonson' against his eighteenth-century and Victorian re-creations. Ben Jonson in the Romantic Age shows us a varied, mobile, and contested Jonson and offers a fresh perspective on the Romantic age.
This is the first complete edition of the works of William Congreve (1670-1729), one of Britain's most important literary figures. The texts of the plays, novel, poetry, opera, and letters are presented in original spelling. The editor, D.F. McKenzie, has added his own thorough notes at the end of each volume.
Historical Narrative Offers Introduction to Romanticism by Placing Key Figures in Overall Social Context Going beyond the general literary survey, A History of Romantic Literature examines the literatures of sensibility and intensity as well as the aesthetic dimensions of horror and terror, sublimity and ecstasy, by providing a richly integrated account of shared themes, interests, innovations, rivalries and disputes among the writers of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Drawing from the assemblage theory, Prof. Burwick maintains that the literature of the period is inseparable from prevailing economic conditions and ongoing political and religious turmoil, as well as devel...
Critically acclaimed as one of Shakespeare's most complex and intriguing plays, Twelfth Night is a classic romantic comedy of mistaken identities. In recent years it has returned to the centre of critical debate surrounding gender and sexuality. The Introduction explores the multiple factors that make up the play's rich textual, theatrical, critical and cultural history. Keir Elam surveys the play's production and reception, emphasising the role of the spectator both within the comedy and the playhouse.