Regents Renaissance drama series

"A popular and influential play from its first performance in 1611 until the early eighteenth century, A King and No King helped establish Beaumont and Fletcher as leading playwrights of the day, and tragicomedy as the seventeenth century's favoured dramatic genre." "Accompanying this newly edited text, an introduction explores the play's sources, both literary and dramatic, and offers a thorough reconsideration of it social and political context. Lee Bliss finds the entertaining, wish-fulfilment tragicomic form not incompatible with a serious critical engagement with contemporary issues of royal absolutism, good governance, and the political role of the aristocracy. In addition, this edition provides the fullest available account of A King and No King's stage history, tracing the shifts in cultural mores that eroded its popularity and ultimately consigned it to the study rather than the stage."--BOOK JACKET.

When Theseus, Duke of Athens, learns that the ruler of Thebes has killed three noble kings he swears to take revenge. But after Athens triumphs over the rival city, Theseus is struck by the bravery of two Theban cousins and orders his surgeons to attend to them. Soon, the cousins' lifelong friendship is threatened, as both become overwhelmed with love for the duke's beautiful sister.

Ben Jonson's play of the agreeable versus disagreeable behaviors of men and women begins by situating, at the center of the plot, a boy disguised as a woman whose name is Epicoene. A misanthrope, Morose, has hopes of marrying "her." Morose hates the noise of society and dreams of living in total silence. Epicoene, also called the Silent Woman, is compliant and meek. When she passes all of Morose's derogatory interrogation with flying colors and they are married, she suddenly begins scolding him loudly and infringing on his peaceful surroundings by bringing in her raucous friends. Morose's greedy nephew, Dauphine, promises to find a way to end this marriage as long as he receives a sumptuous allowance for his effort. After the divorce papers are finally signed, Dauphine removes Epicoene's wig to show that "she" is a male actor trained for the part. Jonson's divergence from Elizabethan comedy's usual direction from sadness to joy instead begins with high spirits and ends in loss and discouragement. This play is menacing, funny, and finds fault at almost every social level. It is all about selfishness and hypocrisy and how seemingly playful cosmetic concealment only produces corruption and deception. Please Note: This book has been reformatted to be easy to read in true text, not scanned images that can sometimes be difficult to decipher. The Microsoft eBook has a contents page linked to the chapter headings for easy navigation. The Adobe eBook has bookmarks at chapter headings and is printable up to two full copies per year. Both versions are text searchable.

From playbill: "Knebworth. On Tuesday, November 19th, 1850, will be performed Ben Jonson's comedy Every man in his humour." Charles Dickens played the role of Captain Bobadil. Includes notice of a performance of John Poole's farce Turning the tables following Jonson's comedy. Dickens played the role of Jeremiah Bumps in the former and was stage manager.

A dramatization of the ancient Roman conflict between Marius and Sulla, the play is generally considered Lodge's only extant solo drama.