Classic plays / drama

Book SynopsisIn this play, Euripides uses the story of Heracles' murder of his wife and children to explore the contrast between myth and reality, and the boundaries of madness. This edition aims to bring out the play’s human and psychological qualities and to defend its structure and dramatic power. Greek text with facing translation, notes and commentary.Table of ContentsGeneral Editor’s ForewordPrefaceGeneral Bibliography for EuripidesIntroduction to Heracles 1. Heracles 2. Plot and Shaping 3. Structure 4. Themes: The gods Madness and violence The development of arete or heroic valour Friendship5. Plan of Structure6. The Date7. The Text8. Manuscripts and Editorial SymbolsTEXT AND TRANSLATION OF HERACLES Hypothesis. Plot Summary Text and TranslationCOMMENTARYSelect Bibliography to HeraclesIndex to Heracles

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Book SynopsisAlcestis is the only tragedy known to have been produced in the position usually allotted (at the Athenian tragic festivals) to the semi-comic satyr-play. Although it has a happy ending, opinions differ widely on the meaning of this beautifully constructed little masterpiece. Greek text with facing translation, introduction and commentary.Trade Review‘The introduction is informative, sensible and perceptive… commentary is up to date, learned, informative and often perceptive.’JACTTable of ContentsGeneral Editor’s ForewordAcknowledgementsUpdated General BibliographyBibliography to Alcestis Introduction to Alcestis I. Ancient information II. The myth and its adaptation Bibliography to Alcestis III. The play and its problems: i. Genre and tone ii. Themes and structure iii. The treatment of Admetus iv. Some other views v. Visual aspects IV. The TextNotes to Introduction to AlcestisText and TranslationCommentaryIndex

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Book SynopsisIn Euripides’ Hippolytus, a young man (Hippolytus) is falsely accused of rape after rejecting a married woman's (Phaedra's) advances. This excellent play is crucial to Euripidean studies, due to its influence, and also as it shows us Euripides’ ‘rewriting’ of his earlier play on the same topic. Greek text with translation and commentary.Table of ContentsGeneral Editor’s ForewordGeneral Introduction to the Series I. The Ancient Theatre II. Greek Tragedy III. EuripidesIntroduction to Hippolytus I. Hippolytus: Mythical Background and Cult II. Hippolytus I III. The Play A Note on the Text and TranslationGeneral BibliographyAbbreviations and Bibliography for HippolytusManuscripts and SiglaHippolytus: Text and Translation CommentaryIndex

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Book SynopsisIon is generally regarded as one of Euripides’ most attractive plays. A skilfully organised plot, charming characters, exciting situations and thought-provoking themes make it an excellent introduction to the study of Greek drama generally and of Euripides in particular. Greek text with facing translation, introduction and commentary.Table of ContentsGeneral Editor’s ForewordPrefaceAbbreviationsAddenda 2007Updated General BibliographyIntroduction to Ion 1. Plot and meaning 2. Structure 3. Characters 4. Themes and Issues 5. Myth 6. Staging 7. Date 8. Text and TranslationManuscripts and Editorial SymbolsText and Translation of Ion CommentaryBibliography for IonIndex

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Book SynopsisSophocles’ Antigone is among the greatest of all works of Greek literature, and is often the play read first by those beginning to study Greek tragedy. This edition offers the text with facing translation and commentary, and an introduction including an account of the myth, a survey of the main interpretative issues, and a bibliography.Table of ContentsPreface AbbreviationsIntroduction 1. Sophocles and the Antigone 2. The myth 3. Creon and Antigone 4. This editionNotes to the IntroductionBibliographyAntigone – Text and TranslationSources of ReadingsNotes

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Book SynopsisBirds differs from other surviving plays of Aristophanes in having no obvious connection with a topical question. Instead, satire is kept firmly subordinate to fantasy; and as fantasy Birds has no rival in what we possess of Greek literature, until we reach Lucian nearly six centuries later. Greek text with facing translation and commentary.Trade Review‘For an overall series of the entire corpus, including critical text, commentary, translation, and full introduction, all subsumed to one man’s intelligent analysis and wide-ranging scholarship, Sommerstein stands triumphantly alone. […] Aristophanes is lucky to have so devoted, erudite, and witty a modern celebrant.’ ScholiaTable of ContentsPrefaceReferences and AbbreviationsBIRDS Introductory Note Select Bibliography Note on the Text Sigla Text and Translation Notes

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Book SynopsisProduced in 408 BC, Orestes marks the culmination of Euripides' development, and in antiquity it surpassed all other tragedies in popularity. An exuberant and entertaining melodrama full of varied action, emotion and novel theatrical effects — no study of Greek drama should neglect it. Text with translation, introduction and commentary.Trade Review"West's introduction is full of interest and penetrative insight."London Association of Classical Teachers (LACT)"Strongly recommended."ChoiceTable of ContentsGeneral Editor’s ForewordAuthor’s PrefaceAuthor’s Postscript 2005Updated General BibliographyIntroduction to Orestes I. Orestes in the Development of Tragedy II. The Story III. Literary Sources and Models IV. Characters, Ethics, Contemporary Background V. Production VI. From Euripides’ Text to OursNotes to Introduction to OrestesBibliography to OrestesAbbreviationsSiglaText and TranslationCommentaryIndex

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Book SynopsisThis edition of Aeschylus' Eumenides presents a newly constituted text that diverges substantially from Page's Oxford Classical Text of 1972. The facing-page translation is in prose, with literary and historical commentary, notes, and an introduction dealing with myth, historical background and suggested staging of the play.Table of ContentsACKNOWLEDGEMENTSINTRODUCTIONI. The Myth before Aeschylus; cult of the Semnai; early Conceptions of the ErinyesII. Staging a. The Design of the Early Theatreb. The Staging of EumenidesIII. Philosophy and PoliticsIV. Influencea. Ancient Literatureb. Ancient Artc. The Myth in Later Literature and MusicV. The Eumenides and its Place in the Work of Aeschylus; Dike (Justice) in The Oresteia; the Moral of the TrilogyVI. The Text of Eumenides and its TransmissionNOTESTEXT AND TRANSLATIONCOMMENTARYApparatus CriticusAppendicesI. Athenian Judicial Procedure as Reflected in the Trial SceneII. Athena’s Vote at vv. 735 and 752–3 and the so-called “Vote of Athena”III. The Choral MetresGENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHYINDEXIllustrations:Side panel of a Roman sarcophagusRoman marble sarcophagusApulian calyx-krater

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Book SynopsisPhiloctetes is a tragedy of surpassing human interest, portraying relationships against a background of terrible suffering and mean intrigue. This edition provides the Greek text with facing translation; a commentary elucidating the action; and an Introduction with analysis of the play, and notes on its background and manuscript tradition.Table of ContentsPreface AbbreviationsBibliographyIntroduction Notes SiglaPHILOCTETES – Text and TranslationNote on the HypothesesCommentaryAppendixes: Metre Apparatus CriticusGlossaryIndex

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Book SynopsisThesmophoriazusae is perhaps the funniest of all Aristophanes’ comedies, in which gender inversion and transvestism run riot as the tragic dramatist Euripides is made to take part in a hilarious spoof on some of his own favourite plot lines. This edition, updated in 2013, presents the Greek text with facing-page translation, commentary and notes.Trade Review‘For an overall series of the entire corpus, including critical text, commentary, translation, and full introduction, all subsumed to one man’s intelligent analysis and wide-ranging scholarship, Sommerstein stands triumphantly alone. […] Aristophanes is lucky to have so devoted, erudite, and witty a modern celebrant.’ ScholiaTable of ContentsPREFACE References and Abbreviations a. Collections of Fragments b. Abbreviations: Ancient Authors and Works c. Abbreviations: Modern Authors and Publications d. Metrical Symbols INTRODUCTORY NOTE Select Bibliography Note on the Text Sigla Dramatis Personae THESMOPHORIAZUSAE Text and Translation CRITICAL APPARATUS COMMENTARY BIBLIOGRAPHY ADDENDA

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Book SynopsisThis book offers the first English commentary on Euripides’ play Bacchae since that of E. R. Dodds (1960). It takes account of studies made on the play since then, as well as discussing recent scholarship and new research into the cult of Dionysus. Greek text with facing translation, introduction and commentary. Bibliography updated in 2015.Table of ContentsGeneral Editor’s ForewordPrefaceAbbreviationsIntroduction to Bacchae: I: Tradition and Structure II: The Bacchae and the Dionysiac III: The Bacchae and Cult IV: The Bacchae and the Polis V: The Transmission of the BacchaeManuscriptsApparatus CriticusText and Translation of BacchaeSelected Text from Christus PatiensCommentaryGeneral Bibliography Selected Bibliography for BacchaeIndex

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Book SynopsisProduced in 405 BC, Frogs contains the earliest sustained piece of literary criticism in the Western tradition - the contest for the throne of tragedy between Euripides and Aeschylus. This edition is the first to combine a reliable English translation of Frogs with a full explanatory commentary; it also includes a freshly constituted Greek text.Trade Review‘For an overall series of the entire corpus, including critical text, commentary, translation, and full introduction, all subsumed to one man’s intelligent analysis and wide-ranging scholarship, Sommerstein stands triumphantly alone. […] Aristophanes is lucky to have so devoted, erudite, and witty a modern celebrant.’ScholiaTable of ContentsPrefaceReferences and AbbreviationsIntroductionSelect Bibliography Aristophanes FrogsNote on the TextSiglaFROGS:Dramatis PersonaeText and TranslationCommentary

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Book SynopsisEcclesiazusae is a typically Aristophanic fantasy of gender inversion, obscenity and farce, and the earliest surviving work in the western Utopian tradition. This edition, with facing translation and commentary, sets the play in its political context, and defines the details of staging as precisely as the text will allow.Trade Review‘All in all, this book is a great source of knowledge and will be very helpful for anyone who studies Ecclesiazusae.’Classical Review‘For an overall series of the entire corpus, including critical text, commentary, translation, and full introduction, all subsumed to one man’s intelligent analysis and wide-ranging scholarship, Sommerstein stands triumphantly alone. […] Aristophanes is lucky to have so devoted, erudite, and witty a modern celebrant.’ScholiaTable of ContentsAddenda 2007Updated General BibliographyPrefaceReferences and AbbreviationsIntroduction Bibliography to Ecclesiazusae Note on the Text SiglaText and TranslationCommentary

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Book SynopsisThis play is a powerful and challenging tragedy of exile and supplication. Driven from Argos, the children of Heracles flee as fugitives until they are granted asylum in Athens. The amorality of the powerful and the vulnerability of refugees make this a drama of continuing relevance. Greek text with facing translation, introduction and commentary.Trade Review“William Allan is rapidly establishing himself as a rising star in Euripidean studies.”Ian C. Storey, Mouseion, 2004Table of ContentsPrefaceGeneral Editor’s ForewordAbbreviations and Bibliography for The Children of HeraclesGeneral Bibliography for EuripidesIntroduction 1. Myth 2. Integrity and Structure of the Play 3. Suppliant Tragedy 4. Tragedy and History 5. Setting and Staging 6. The Heraclidae in Art 7. The Date of the Play 8. The Transmission of the TextTEXT AND TRANSLATIONCOMMENTARY

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Book SynopsisAndromache, written in the early years of the Peloponnesian War, shows the effects of war on the conquerors and the conquered. The other main theme is the role and nature of women, explored through the conflict between the contrasting figures of Andromache and Hermione. Greek text with facing translation, introduction and commentary. 2nd ed.Trade Review'A sound and useful edition, with a reliable translation and a sensible commentary.'David Sansone, Exemplaria Classica (January, 2007)Table of ContentsGeneral Editor’s ForewordPrefaceAbbreviationsIntroduction The Myth Structure and Themes Wives and Concubines Locale and Staging Date and Place of Production A Note on the Greek TextManuscripts and Editorial SymbolsText and Translation of AndromacheCommentaryGeneral Bibliography for Euripides Bibliography for AndromacheIndex

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Book SynopsisA group of Argive women beg King Theseus to bring about the burial of their sons who are being denied it by their Theban conquerors. The play explores themes of a just war, the family, the role and behaviour of women, and the education of Theseus, as he is transformed from a great hero into a great man. Text with facing translation and commentary.Trade Review'A very thorough and scholarly account of...an unjustly neglected play.'Neill Croally, JACT, 2007'The many qualities of this volume will enable numerous readers to enjoy the discovery of this magnificent play which, as James Morwood reminds us, has too long been considered as a minor work by Euripides, a play of political propaganda. Each part of the book, the Introduction, Translation and Commentary, aims to facilitate reading and stimulate interest, without drowning the reader in technical details concerning Euripides language or the editing of his work.'Aurelie Wach, Bryn Mawr Classical Review, 2007Table of ContentsGeneral Editor's ForewordEditor's Preface Introduction: 1. Plot, themes and motifs 2. Politics and character 3a. King Theseus and democratic Athens 3b. Theseus, Herakles and Kimon 4. Athenian funeral encomia and Adrastos' oration 5. The play's geography 5a. Eleusis 5b. Thebes 5c. Argos 6. The myth and its reception 7. Date 8. The text and translationBibliography and Abbreviations for Suppliant WomenMap: The Greece of the playSuppliant Women: Greek text with parallel translationCommentaryAppendix: The Argive women and Athenian mourning legislationGeneral BibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisIn Peace, produced in 421 B.C., Aristophanes celebrates in anticipation the conclusion, after ten years, of the great war between Athens and Sparta. This volume presents the Greek text with facing-page translation, commentary and notes. The second edition has been substantially updated with extensive addenda to the Notes and Bibliography.Trade Review'College and university libraries should own a copy for students and faculty looking for a current, comprehensive bibliography to the play.'Martha Habash, Bryn Mawr Classical Review, 2007‘For an overall series of the entire corpus, including critical text, commentary, translation, and full introduction, all subsumed to one man’s intelligent analysis and wide-ranging scholarship, Sommerstein stands triumphantly alone. […] Aristophanes is lucky to have so devoted, erudite, and witty a modern celebrant.’ ScholiaTable of ContentsPrefaceReferences and AbbreviationsPEACE Introductory Note Note on the Text Sigla Text and Translation Notes Addenda including Bibliography

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Book SynopsisIn a respectful, but not reverent, adaptation, Kenneth Cavander reimagines Timon of Athens for the twenty-first century.

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Book SynopsisA modern translation that will appeal to new audiences. In her translation of The Merry Wives of Windsor, Dipika Guha updates the language of Shakespeare's comedy through the lens of our current moment. Guha maintains the humor at the heart of the play while making it accessible for both performers and audiences. This translation was written as part of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival's Play On! project, which commissioned new translations of thirty-nine Shakespeare plays. These translations present the work of The Bard in language accessible to modern audiences while never losing the beauty of Shakespeare's verse. These volumes make these works available for the first time in printa new First Folio for a new era.

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Book SynopsisOriginally published in 1965. The European dramatic tradition rests on a group of religious dramas that appeared between the tenth and twelfth centuries. These dramas, of interest in themselves, are also important for the light they shed on three historical and critical problems: the relation of drama to ritual, the nature of dramatic form, and the development of representational techniques. Hardison's approach is based on the history of the Christian liturgy, on critical theories concerning the kinship of ritual and drama, and on close analysis of the chronology and content of the texts themselves. Beginning with liturgical commentaries of the ninth century, Hardison shows that writers of the period consciously interpreted the Mass and cycle of the church year in dramatic terms. By reconstructing the services themselves, he shows that they had an emphatic dramatic structure that reached its climax with the celebration of the Resurrection. Turning to the history of the Latin ResurrectiTable of ContentsPrefaceChapter 1. Darwin, Mutations, and the Origin of Medieval DramaChapter 2. The Mass as Sacred DramaChapter 3. The Lenten Agon: From Septuagesima to Good FridayChapter 4. Christus Victor: From Holy Saturday to Low SundayChapter 5. The Early History of The Quem QuaeritisChapter 6. From Quem Quaeritis to Resurrection PLayChapter 7. The Vernacular Tradition: Form, Episode, DialogueEpilogue. A Note on the Continuity of Ritual Form in European DramaAppendix I: TranslationsAppendix II: Chronological Index of Early Liturgical PlaysIndex

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Book SynopsisIt is a commonly held view among historians of Greek literature that with the advent of Euripides the tragic structure, even the tragic outlook of Greek drama suffered a breakdown from which it never recovered. While there is much truth in this opinion, it has tended to put too much emphasis on 'Euripides the destroyer' rather than 'Euripides the creator.' In this study the author's main purpose is to redress the balance and to discuss the structure and techniques of Euripidean drama in relation to its new and richly varied themes.The consistent dramatic form evolved by Aeschylus and Sophocles had grown out of their conception of tragedy as the resultant of the tension between the individual will and the universal order suggested in myth. For Euripides, who never fully accepted myth as the real basis of tragedy, alternate ways of using the traditional material became necessary, and the playwright continually changed his dramatic structure to suit the particular tragic ide

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Book SynopsisThe precise relation between the spectator and the work of art was a matter of great interest to late Renaissance and baroque artists, playwrights as well as painters. In Shakespeare's plays the relation between audience and stage life is crucial. The plays constantly remind the audience of the complex fictiveness of their experience yet they also project a reality specifically through illusion. Indirections is a study of twelve plays in which Shakespeare sets up situations and relationships between the characters analogous to the relationship established between audience and play.This book examines the varied uses of illusion, deceit, disguise, and manipulation in the plays, both comedies and tragedies, and traces Shakespeare's use of illusion through his career — from the buoyant optimism of the great comedies and the ambiguity of the middle years to the new richness and power in the romances.Dawson suggests that the way characters respond to illusory

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Book SynopsisThis book is about a mad king and a mad duke. With original and iconoclastic readings, Richard van Oort pioneers the reading of Shakespeare as an ethical thinker of the "originary scene," the scene in which humans became conscious of themselves as symbol-using moral and narrative beings. Taking King Lear and Measure for Measure as case studies, van Oort shows how the minimal concept of an anthropological scene of origin—the "originary hypothesis"—provides the basis for a new understanding of every aspect of the plays, from the psychology of the characters to the ethical and dialogical conflicts upon which the drama is based. The result is a gripping commentary on the plays. Why does Lear abdicate and go mad? Why does Edgar torture his father with non-recognition? Why does Lucio accuse the Duke in Measure for Measure of madness and lechery, and why does Isabella remain silent at the end? In approaching these and other questions from the perspective of the originary hypothesis, van Oort helps us to see the ethical predicament of the plays, and, in the process, makes Shakespeare new again.Trade Review"This is criticism of the highest order, whose long, careful readings of King Lear and Measure for Measure are in dialogue with the finest readers of Shakespeare for the past century." —Blair Hoxby, Stanford University"A rigorous yet highly readable attempt to understand Shakespeare and neoclassical drama in general in new terms, Shakespeare's Mad Men demonstrates in admirable detail the analytical power of generative anthropology wielded by a powerful intelligence."—Eric Gans, University of California, Los Angeles"Attentive to both the ruses of bad faith and the truths disclosed by Shakespeare's language, van Oort addresses our human predicament as symbol-making creatures whose search for love is troubled by the ceaseless drive for mastery."—Julia Reinhard Lupton, University of California, Irvine"van Oort's reading is nothing less than a stunning provocation."—Amir Khan, Shakespeare Quarterly"[R]eaders... will find value and pleasure in van Oort's compelling readings, and his clear style makes complex concepts pleasingly accessible."—Molly G. Yarp, Times Literary Supplement"Eminently readable, Shakespeare's Man Men attempts to engage and explain the larger questions the plays raise, particularly why characters behave the way they do and make the choices they do. The readings are original and offer exciting ways to engage with the plays. Highly recommended."—K. J. Wetmore Jr., CHOICETable of ContentsIntroduction 1. The King's Last Potlatch 2. The Judge, the Duke, His Wife, and Her Lover Conclusion

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Book SynopsisWho killed Laius? Most readers assume Oedipus did. At the play’s end, he stands convicted of murdering his father, marrying his mother, and triggering a deadly plague. With selections from a stellar assortment of critics including Walter Burkert, Terry Eagleton, Michel Foucault, René Girard, and Jean-Pierre Vernant, this book reopens the Oedipus case and lets readers judge for themselves.The Greek word for tragedy means “goat song.” Is Oedipus the goat? Helene Peet Foley calls him “the kind of leader a democracy would both love and desire to ostracize”, The Oedipus Casebook readings weigh the evidence against Oedipus, place the play in the context of Greek scapegoat rites, and explore the origins of tragedy in the festival of Dionysus.This unique critical edition includes a new translation of the play by distinguished classics scholar Wm. Blake Tyrrell and the authoritative Greek text established by H. Lloyd-Jones and N. G. Wilson.

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Book SynopsisThe first-ever print edition of a play by one of the first women playwrights in England. E. Polwhele (c. 1651-c. 1691) was one of the first women to write for the stage in Restoration London. This book presents the first printed edition of Polwhele’s first play, The Faithful Virgins, which until now has existed only in an unsigned manuscript in the Bodleian Library at Oxford University. A tragicomedy apparently performed in London by the Duke's Company ca. 1669–1671, The Faithful Virgins is altogether different in tone from Polwhele's later, better-known prose comedy, The Frolicks; or, The Lawyer Cheated (1671). The introduction to this modern-spelling edition of The Faithful Virgins discusses the play in terms of radical changes in English stage practices following the restoration of the monarchy after England’s civil war and situates Polwhele’s play within the social and political life of seventeenth-century London. Trade Review"This fine volume makes available a play long overlooked in Restoration drama studies: Polwhele’s The Faithful Virgins (ca. 1669–1671). Ann Hollinshead Hurley’s informative introduction and carefully edited text disclose Polwhele’s imaginative response to rapidly changing theatrical tastes in the1660s. The stage directions show Polwhele skillfully using the spectacular effects of which Restoration stagecraft was capable, while the text reveals a fascinating mélange of dramatic forms. The Faithful Virgins marries in a singular manner tragicomedy to masque and includes a dumb show, proving once again, that the phrase “Restoration drama” is by no means synonymous with comedy of manners. The editor’s introduction also provides for scholars and students alike useful information on the Restoration stage, in addition to making available the most thorough biographical material on Polwhele to date." -- Deborah C. Payne, Professor of Literature, American UniversityTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Illustrations Abbreviations INTRODUCTION THE FAITHFUL VIRGINS APPENDIX: Title page: The Gentlewomans Companion; or, a GUIDE to the FEMALE SEX On His ROYAL HIGHNESS: His Expedition against the DUTCH Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThe Society for the Study of Early Modern Women and Gender awarded this work the Prize for the Best Translated Edition of a Work on Women and Gender, 2018.Valerie Hegstrom and Catherine Larson have created an annotated new edition and first-ever translation of ngela de Azevedo’s vibrant comedy, El muerto disimulado / Presumed Dead, to promote the recuperation of early modern plays authored by women. The book contains a comprehensive introduction that describes Spanish theater in its Golden Age, what is known of the author’s life and times, contemporary stagings, and an extensive analysis of the text.Although the playwright penned her work in Spanish, the Portuguese Azevedo set the action in Lisbon, creating in the process an abundance of multicultural allusions that enrich the text’s baroque quality. The story unfolds as a cross between a jilted-lover scenario and a whodunit murder mystery. A woman laments her departed lover, a sister cross-dresses to avenge her murdered brother, a man duels with his cousin over lost honor, and before long, the dead man turns up as a ghost, or a bar maid, or a female peddler. Questions about identity abound in the witty El muerto disimulado / Presumed Dead. The transnational nature of this clever comedy complicates meanings, often producing bilingual wordplay that underscores the self-conscious, gender-bending, ludic character of the play and of theater in general. Azevedo highlights her ability to cross linguistic and geographic borders in the early modern period, as she simultaneously works within and offers a challenge to the dominant tradition of the Spanish Comedia.Trade Review'This side-by-side Spanish–English edition of the play will allow scholars, students, and actors to approach Azevedo’s work afresh. For many, it will be the first opportunity to read this relatively unknown author’s work. This accessible, accomplished edition of El muerto disimulado / Presumed Dead should help Azevedo’s play become better known both on page and on stage. Hegstrom and Larson are to be congratulated for making this significant contribution both to the scholarship on early modern women and to the corpus of highly skilled translations of early modern women’s work.' Lisa Vollendorf, Bulletin of the Comediantes‘There is a very small subset of translators who are able to produce compelling verse translations of comedias and an even smaller one whose verse translations are manageable for university theater students. This edition offers a highly readable — and I believe stage-worthy — prose translation that transmits the content accurately and also captures much of the early modern delight with dazzling verbal gymnastics.’ Barbara Simerka, Queens College, City University of New York, Early Modern Women Journal ‘Hegstrom and Larson have done a superb job bringing Azevedo’s play to life, and scholars, students, directors, actors and lovers of Golden Age comedia can now enjoy a play and playwright, neither of which will ever again fall into oblivion.’ Nieves Romero-Díaz, Mount Holyoke College, Seventeenth-Century News

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Book SynopsisThe Society for the Study of Early Modern Women and Gender awarded this work the Prize for the Best Translated Edition of a Work on Women and Gender, 2018.Valerie Hegstrom and Catherine Larson have created an annotated new edition and first-ever translation of ngela de Azevedo’s vibrant comedy, El muerto disimulado / Presumed Dead, to promote the recuperation of early modern plays authored by women. The book contains a comprehensive introduction that describes Spanish theater in its Golden Age, what is known of the author’s life and times, contemporary stagings, and an extensive analysis of the text.Although the playwright penned her work in Spanish, the Portuguese Azevedo set the action in Lisbon, creating in the process an abundance of multicultural allusions that enrich the text’s baroque quality. The story unfolds as a cross between a jilted-lover scenario and a whodunit murder mystery. A woman laments her departed lover, a sister cross-dresses to avenge her murdered brother, a man duels with his cousin over lost honor, and before long, the dead man turns up as a ghost, or a bar maid, or a female peddler. Questions about identity abound in the witty El muerto disimulado / Presumed Dead. The transnational nature of this clever comedy complicates meanings, often producing bilingual wordplay that underscores the self-conscious, gender-bending, ludic character of the play and of theater in general. Azevedo highlights her ability to cross linguistic and geographic borders in the early modern period, as she simultaneously works within and offers a challenge to the dominant tradition of the Spanish Comedia.Trade Review'This side-by-side Spanish–English edition of the play will allow scholars, students, and actors to approach Azevedo’s work afresh. For many, it will be the first opportunity to read this relatively unknown author’s work. This accessible, accomplished edition of El muerto disimulado / Presumed Dead should help Azevedo’s play become better known both on page and on stage. Hegstrom and Larson are to be congratulated for making this significant contribution both to the scholarship on early modern women and to the corpus of highly skilled translations of early modern women’s work.' Lisa Vollendorf, Bulletin of the Comediantes‘There is a very small subset of translators who are able to produce compelling verse translations of comedias and an even smaller one whose verse translations are manageable for university theater students. This edition offers a highly readable — and I believe stage-worthy — prose translation that transmits the content accurately and also captures much of the early modern delight with dazzling verbal gymnastics.’ Barbara Simerka, Queens College, City University of New York, Early Modern Women Journal ‘Hegstrom and Larson have done a superb job bringing Azevedo’s play to life, and scholars, students, directors, actors and lovers of Golden Age comedia can now enjoy a play and playwright, neither of which will ever again fall into oblivion.’ Nieves Romero-Díaz, Mount Holyoke College, Seventeenth-Century News

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Book SynopsisIn the final decade of the eighteenth century, theatre was amongst the most important sites for redefining France's national identity. In this study, Annelle Curulla uses a range of archival material to show that, more than any other subject matter which was once forbidden from the French stage, Roman Catholic religious life provided a crucial trope for expressing theatre's patriotic mission after 1789.Even as old rules and customs fell with the walls of the Bastille, dramatic works by Gouges, Chénier, La Harpe, and others depicted the cloister as a space for reimagining forms of familial, individual, and civic belonging and exclusion.By relating the dramatic trope of religious life to shifting concepts of gender, family, religiosity, and nation, Curulla sheds light on how the process of secularization played out in the cultural space of French theatre.Trade Review'As well-written as it is meticulously researched, Annelle Curulla’s excellent first book not only illustrates the scholarly significance of Revolutionary theater, it also broadens our understanding of it.' Yann Robert, H-France ReviewTable of ContentsIntroduction: the cloister and the stageHistorical contextApproaches and sources1. Theatrical vocations: La Harpe’s Mélanie, ou la Religieuse (1770-1802)Mélanie’s instability: revisions to the text (1770-1802)Mélanie in the salonsFrom salon to stage: Mélanie in the Revolution (1790-1792)Reviving Mélanie (1796-1802)Conclusion2. Changing habits: the monastic trope as secularisation, 1790 and 1791Prisoners of the cloth: impossible love in monastic dramaTaking it off: secularisation as comedyOver the line? Plays that failedConclusion3. Dramaturgies of the cloister in Les Victimes cloîtréesPlaces of the forgotten: legends of monastic prisonsThe origins of the double sceneReading the double sceneConclusion4. Mother–daughter plots in monastic dramaThe pregnant nun in D’Alembert’s Eloge de Fléchier (1778)From sentimental to Gothic motherhood: Pougens’s Julie, ou la Religieuse de NîmesMaternal heroism in Olympe de GougesRepublican family values: Chénier’s Fénelon, ou les Religieuses de CambraiConclusion5. Brotherly orders: soldiers, monks and libertines in monastic comedyPersistent libertines: Les VisitandinesBrotherhood or else: La Partie carréePigault-Lebrun: fraternity between the sexesConclusionConclusion: lessons of the cloisterAppendix 1: examples of the monastic trope in Revolutionary dramaAppendix 2: bibliography of printed examples of the monastic tropeBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisThis bilingual edition presents Luis Vélez de Guevara’s 1613 play La Serrana de la Vera (The Mountain Girl from La Vera) for the first time ever in English translation. This long-forgotten tragedy has come back into focus in recent years because of its extraordinary protagonist, Gila, a peasant girl who calls herself a man, takes fierce pride in doing things men do, and falls in love with Queen Isabel. Her betrayal by an army captain who she has humiliated leads to lawlessness, violence and tragedy. Dramatized by the playwright as an heroic rebel, Gila has been variously described as feminist, homosexual, bisexual, lesbian, transsexual, hybrid, queer, and transgender. Highly relevant today, The Mountain Girl from La Vera is also a great piece of theatre, full of dramatic confrontations, colourful vignettes, striking moments of music and spectacle, and plentiful comic relief. This bilingual edition presents the entirety of the play, annotated, along with a Critical Introduction by the translator that contextualizes the work.Table of ContentsAcknowledgementsIntroductionLa Serrana de la Vera/The Mountain Girl from La Vera

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Book SynopsisA play about defiance of systemic racism. Juan de Mérida, an Afro-Spanish soldier aspires to social advancement in the Netherlands during the Eighty Years' War (1566-1648). His main enemies are not Dutch rebels but his white countrymen, whom he defeats at every attempt to humiliate him. In this play one encounters military culture, upward mobility, mistaken identities, defying destiny, royal pageantry, swordfights, cross-dressing, revenge, homosexual anxiety, and inter-racial marriage. Andrés de Claramonte’s El valiente negro en Flandes (c.1625) is an Afrodiasporic play that enjoyed great success and multiple stagings in Spain and in Latin America. Its 1938 negrista performance in Havana, Cuba, and Frantz Fanon’s Black Skin, White Masks, attest to the power of this play to illuminate contemporary racial dynamics. This is the first annotated, critical edition and English translation of El valiente negro en Flandes with a comprehensive introduction, three critical essays, the critical apparatus comparing the eleven extant versions of the play, and an appendix with alternative scenes and related historical documents. A tool for scholars of early modern European literature and a pedagogical aid to discuss the early discourses on Blackness in Spain and its trans-Atlantic empire.Table of ContentsIntroductionEl valiente negro en Flandes / The Valiant Black Man in FlandersFootnotesCritical EssaysBibliographyIllustrationsCritical ApparatusAppendices

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Book SynopsisIphigenia in Tauris tells the story of the princess Iphigenia who was sacrificed by her father Agamemnon to expedite his campaign against Troy but was rescued by the goddess Artemis and transported to the land of the Taurians. There she herself must perform human sacrifices as a priestess of Artemis in the local cult. Troy has now been sacked, and Agamemnon murdered by his wife and avenged by his son Orestes. With his mother's blood on his hands, Orestes is guided by Apollo to seek purification through bringing the image of the Tauric Artemis to Greece, and so is reunited with his sister. The drama centers on Orestes' near-sacrifice at Iphigenia’s hands, their recognition in the nick of time, and their ingenious and thrilling escape to bring the cult of Artemis to Halae and Brauron near Athens. Martin Cropp’s first edition was originally published in 2000 and provided the first commentary on the play since those of Maurice Platnauer (Oxford, 1938) and Hans Strohm (Munich, 1949). It contributed significantly to a revival of interest in what had been a rather neglected and underrated play. This new edition incorporates substantial revisions to the introduction and commentary and some corrections to the Greek text and translation in light of reviews of the first edition and other recent work.

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Book SynopsisIphigenia in Tauris tells the story of the princess Iphigenia who was sacrificed by her father Agamemnon to expedite his campaign against Troy but was rescued by the goddess Artemis and transported to the land of the Taurians. There she herself must perform human sacrifices as a priestess of Artemis in the local cult. Troy has now been sacked, and Agamemnon murdered by his wife and avenged by his son Orestes. With his mother's blood on his hands, Orestes is guided by Apollo to seek purification through bringing the image of the Tauric Artemis to Greece, and so is reunited with his sister. The drama centers on Orestes' near-sacrifice at Iphigenia’s hands, their recognition in the nick of time, and their ingenious and thrilling escape to bring the cult of Artemis to Halae and Brauron near Athens. Martin Cropp’s first edition was originally published in 2000 and provided the first commentary on the play since those of Maurice Platnauer (Oxford, 1938) and Hans Strohm (Munich, 1949). It contributed significantly to a revival of interest in what had been a rather neglected and underrated play. This new edition incorporates substantial revisions to the introduction and commentary and some corrections to the Greek text and translation in light of reviews of the first edition and other recent work.

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Book SynopsisText and translation of comic plays sheds light on a fascinating era of theatrical production. `[Opens] up an entirely new corpus of texts for scholars and readers familar with and interested in European dramatic texts from this period, but who have heretofore not had access to them due to the language barrier.' Professor David F. Johnson, Florida State University, Tallahassee During the Middle Ages and early modern period, a dramatic culture of astonishing vitality developed in the Low Countries. Owing to the activities of organisationsknown as rederijkerskamers, or "chambers of rhetoric", drama became a central aspect of public life in the cities of the Netherlands. The comedies produced by these groups are particularly interesting. Drawing their forms and narratives from folklore and popular ritual, and entertaining in their own right, they also bring together a range of important concerns; they respond directly to some of the key developments in the period, reflecting the political and religious turmoil of the Reformation and Dutch Revolt, the emergence of humanism, and the appearance of an early capitalist economy. This collection brings together the original Middle Dutch text of ten of these comic plays, with facing translation into modern English. The selection is divided evenly between formal stage-plays and monologues, and provides a representation of the full range of rederijker drama, from the sophisticatedFarce of the Fisherman, with its sly undermining of audience expectation, to the hearty scatology of A Mock-Sermon on Saint Nobody, and the grim gallows humour of The Farce of the Beggar. An introduction and notes place the plays in their context and elucidate difficulties of interpretation. Ben Parsons is Teaching Fellow at the University of Leicester; Bas Jongenelen is teacher of Dutch Literature at Fontys Lerarenopleidingin Tilburg.Trade ReviewThis volume is a rich source for getting acquainted with the vast comic literature of the Low Countries, providing material and thought for further study and, in so doing (and who could gainsay the benefit of that?), making us readers laugh. * SPECULUM *A very welcome addition to the existing literature. * FOLKLORE *[Makes] an important part of the Dutch literary heritage accessible to scholars from the Anglophone world. * EDITIONEN IN DER KRITIK *Provides a useful window into the Renaissance theatrical tradition [...] The editors have tapped a rich vein in the vital and diverse tradition of vernacular Dutch comic drama. * COMITATUS *Table of ContentsTranslators' Note Introduction: The Older the Hollander the More Foolish: Comedy, Foolery and the Chambers of Rhetoric in the Medieval Low Countries Part I: Dramatic Monologues This is the Madness The Guild of the Blue Barge A Mock Sermon on Saint Nobody The Oath of Master Pawnbroker A Wise and Wonderful Prognostication Part II: Farces The Farce of the Beggar A Play of Three Lovers The Farce of the Fisherman Jack Sweet-tooth A Farce of the Barefoot Brothers Bibliography

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Book SynopsisA new account of medieval and Renaissance clown traditions reveals the true extent of their cultural influence. From the late-medieval period through to the seventeenth century, English theatrical clowns carried a weighty cultural significance, only to have it stripped from them, sometimes violently, by the close of the Renaissance when the famed "license" of fooling was effectively revoked. This groundbreaking survey of clown traditions in the period looks both at their history, and reveals their hidden cultural contexts and legacies; it has far-reaching implications not only for our general understanding of English clown types, but also their considerable role in defining social, religious and racial boundaries. It begins with an exploration of previously un-noted early representations of blackness in medieval psalters, cycle plays, and Tudor interludes, arguing that they are emblematic of folly and ignorance rather than of evil. Subsequent chapters show how protestants at Cambridge and at court, during the reigns of Henry VIII and Edward, patronised a clownish, iconoclastic Lord of Misrule; look at the Elizabethan puritan stage clown; and move on to a provocative reconsideration of the Fool in King Lear, drawing completely fresh conclusions. Finally, the epilogue points to the satirical clowning which took place surreptitiously in the Interregnum, and the (sometimes violent) end of "licensed" folly. Professor ROBERT HORNBACK teaches in the Departments of Literature and Theatre at Oglethorpe University.Trade ReviewHornback's highly original approach works; he offers a balanced, thorough analysis of the ideological underpinnings of a heretofore lost tradition of early English satirical clowning that manages to restore the historical complexity that New Historicists' readings frequently simplified. Moreover, the wealth of close readings combined with his use of many colorful primary texts renders this richly complex yet ultimately accessible work appropriate to scholar and student alike. * MEDIAEVISTIK *Persuasive, and most valuable to all interested in the antic, buffoonish, or satirical characters of the Renaissance stage. * SHAKESPEARE QUARTERLY *An important study. * CHRONIQUE *This is a valuable and very welcome study on a sorely neglected subject. What it demonstrates with admirable clarity is how mobile and heterogeneous this staple of early modern comedy could be. * MEDIUM AEVUM *A fascinating book filled with important revelations. [It] is admirable in its breadth of vision and its specificity and [it] challenges some long-held assumptions. * COMPARATIVE DRAMA, November 2010 *Provides an enlightening and thought-provoking account of the somewhat over-determined subject of the English stage clown. [...] It also sheds some significant light on the workings of the nascent professional theatre which clearly depended on a ludic repertoire in order to underpin and ensure both public and private patronage. Hornback's book shows, however, that clowning and the comic tradition was not only an outlet for social tensions, or comic relief [...] but also a source and arena for important political, religious, and ideological discourse. * NOTES AND QUERIES *[A] useful, clearly written book. * ENGLISH STUDIES *Offers a significant rethinking of early modern English clown traditions and how they interact and represent tensions within Renaissance culture. * CHOICE *Makes a valuable addition to the scholarly literature on early modern clowning, especially for its welcome focus on religion and race. * RENAISSANCE QUARTERLY *With fascinating detail on virtually every page of this book, [the author] has produced a kind of academic page-turner. The English Clown Tradition deserves to be held in very high regard. * TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT *Table of ContentsIntroduction. Unearthing Yoricks: Literary Archaeology and the Ideologies of Early English Clowning Folly as Proto-Racism: Blackface in the "Natural" Fool Tradition "Sports and Follies Against the Pope": Tudor Evangelical Lords of Misrule "Verie Devout Asses": Ignorant Puritan Clows The Fool "by Art": The All-Licensed "Artificial" Fool in the King Lear Quarto Epilogue. License Revoked: Ending an Era

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Book SynopsisA key volume for Shakespeare, African theatre and postcolonial cultural scholars, promoting debate on the role of Western cultural icons in contemporary postcolonial cultures. This volume takes as its starting point an interrogation of the African contributions to the Globe to Globe festival staged in London in 2012, where 37 Shakespeare productions were offered, each from a different nation. Five African companies were invited to perform and there are articles on four of these productions, examining issues of interculturalism, postcolonialism, language, interpretation and reception. The contributors are both Shakespeare and African theatre scholars, promoting discourse from a range of geographical and cultural perspectives. A critical debate about the process of the Globe to Globe festival is initiated in the form of a discussion article featuringsome of its directors and actors. Two further articles look at Shakespeare productions made purely for Africa, from Mauritius and Cape Verde, and leading Nigerian playwright and cultural commentator Femi Osofisan provides an overview article examining Shakespeare in Africa in the 21st century. The playscript in this volume of African Theatre is Femi Osofisan's Wesoo, Hamlet! or the Resurrection of Hamlet. Volume Editor: JANE PLASTOW Series Editors: Martin Banham, Emeritus Professor of Drama & Theatre Studies, University of Leeds; James Gibbs, Senior Visiting Research Fellow, University of the West of England; Femi Osofisan, Professor of Drama at the University of Ibadan; Jane Plastow, Professor of African Theatre, University of Leeds; Yvette Hutchison, Associate Professor, Department of Theatre & Performance Studies, University of WarwickTrade Review[An] excellent volume. * THEATRE SURVEY *Should not be confined to African Studies collections but also find a place in any library concerned with English literature or Theatre Studies. * AFRICAN RESEARCH & DOCUMENTATION *Table of ContentsEditors' Introduction - Jane Plastow Shakespeare, Africa & the Globe Olympiad - Femi Osofisan The Two Gentlemen of Zimbabwe & their Diaspora audience at Shakespeare's Globe - Penelope Woods Shakespeare's African nostos: township nostalgia & South African performance at sea - Colette Gordon Itan Oginintin - The Winter's Tale: Shakespeare meets Yoruba Gods - Sola Adeyemi Performing the nation at the London Globe - notes on a South Sudanese Cymbeline - Christine Matzke African Shakespeares: a discussion - Michael Walling with Juwon Ogungbe, Arne Pohlmeier, Kate Stafford & Dev Virahsawmy - Michael Walling 'Sa bezsominn Shakespeare la': The Brave New World of Dev Virahsawmy - Ashish Beesondial Crioulo Shakespeareano & the creolising of King Lear - Eunice Ferreira Playscript: Wesoo, Hamlet! or the Resurrection of Hamlet by Femi Osofisan - Femi Osofisan Book reviews

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Book SynopsisKing Agamemnon is long dead and his killers rule at Argos. Orestes returns from exile to avenge his father by killing his mother Clytemnestra and her seducer Aegisthus. His vengeance will release his sister Electra from oppression and restore Orestes to his home and kingdom. This is the only episode from Greek legend treated in surviving plays by all three of the great Athenian tragedians of the fifth century B.C. — Aeschylus in his Libation-bearers (part of the Oresteia trilogy), Sophocles and Euripides each in plays named Electra. The three plays provide a unique record of development and divergence in the content and style of Athenian tragic drama. In Euripides' hands the story becomes a tragedy of all too human emotions and illusions. Orestes' revenge is subordinated to Electra's hatred and resentment of her mother and the usurper. Clytemnestra's death brings not joy and restoration but revulsion, separation and renewed exile. Unwarned by the gods, Electra and Orestes recognise too late the human costs of executing Apollo's justice. This edition of Euripides' play was first published in 1988. The second edition is extensively revised to reflect more recent work on the text of the play and its interpretation. Greek text with facing-page English translation, introduction and commentary.Trade Review'A quarter of a century after it was first published, Martin Cropp’s commentary on Euripides’ Electra now appears in a fully revised and updated version. This is a fine book, and everyone interested in Euripides – even if they already own the first edition – should acquire a copy.'P. J. Finglass, University of Nottingham, Bryn Mawr Classical Review, 2013.09.40Table of ContentsGeneral Editor’s ForewordPreface to the Second EditionIntroduction: A view of the play Dramatic Design: Structure; actors and minor characters; the Chorus; location and staging; thematic motifs Euripides and the Oresteia tradition The date of the play Greek text and critical apparatusText and Translation Commentary Abbreviations and references General Bibliography for EuripidesIndex

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

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