Search results for ""author john marston""

The Nick Hern Books RSC Classics - a series of rarely performed plays from the 16th and 17th centuries, published alongside their resurrection by the RSC in Stratford-upon-Avon and the West End. Resonating with echoes of Measure for Measure and Hamlet, John Marston's tragicomedy The Malcontent is a fabulous study of courtly intrigue, betrayal and jealousy. The true Duke of Genoa has lost his throne to the usurper, Pietro. The Duke returns to court in disguise to expose the corruption and regain his rightful office. This edition of the play is edited with an introduction by Peter Thomson and preface by Gregory Doran. The plays in the RSC Classics series reflect the diversity of styles, themes and subjects of the Elizabethan and Jacobean stage, and include a 'new' addition to the Shakespeare canon.

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The Dutch Courtesan is a riotous tragicomedy that explores the delights and perils afforded by Jacobean London. While Freevill, an educated young Englishman and the play's nominal hero, frolics in the city's streets, taverns and brothels, Franceschina, his cast-off mistress and the Dutch courtesan of the play's title,laments his betrayal and plots revenge. Juxtaposing Franceschina's vulnerable financial position against the unappealing marital prospects available to gentry women, the play undermines the language of romance, revealing it to be rooted in the commerce and commodification. Marston's commentary on financial insecurity and the hypocritical repudiation of foreignness makes The Dutch Courtesan truly a document for our time.

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"This Malevole is one of the most prodigious affections that ever conversed with nature: a man, or rather a monster, more discontent than Lucifer." The Malcontent is a striking example of the new satiric tone and moral seriousness in English comedy of the early 1600s. The play's vision of a fallen humanity driven by lust and ambition is created partly by its depiction of Machiavellian intrigue in the court of Genoa, and partly by the disaffected Malevole, the malcontent of the title, who is actually the deposed Duke Altofronto in disguise. Marston's tragi-comedy is full of reversals, surprises and moral transformations and offers a thin disguise for the Jacobean court and its vices. This new student edition contains a lengthy new Introduction with background on the author, date and sources, theme, critical interpretation and stage history.

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The Nick Hern Books RSC Classics - a series of rarely performed plays from the 16th and 17th centuries, published alongside their resurrection by the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon and the West End. Eastward Ho! is a collaboratively written City Comedy by Ben Jonson, John Marston and George Chapman, which sees true love and virtue triumphing over social-climbing, deception and trickery. Teeming with energy and larger than life characters, Eastward Ho! sees Touchstone, a London goldsmith, preparing to marry off his two daughters. Touchstone's two apprentices lead the wooing until the rakish fop Sir Petronel Flash arrives on the scene. Eastward Ho! was first performed at the Blackfriars Theatre, London, in 1605. This edition of the play is edited with an introduction by Helen Ostovich and preface by Gregory Doran. The plays in the RSC Classics series reflect the diversity of styles, themes and subjects of the Elizabethan and Jacobean stage, and include a 'new' addition to the Shakespeare canon.

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