A trick to catch the old one; (Fountainwell drama texts, 8)

Literature & Fiction

Middleton, Thomas

Dramas & Plays

Oliver & Boyd

Written for the adult players at the open-air Swan theatre in 1613,this master-piece of Jacobean city comedy signals its ironic natureeven in the title: chaste maids, like most other goods and people inLondon's busiest commercial area, are likely to be fake. Money is moreimportant than either happiness or honour; and the most covetedcommodities to be bought with it are sex and social prestige. Middletoninterweaves the fortunes of four families, who either seek to marrytheir children off as profitably as possible, to stop having any morefor fear of poverty, or to acquire some in order to keep their propertyin the family. Most prosperous is the husband who pimps his wife to arich knight and lets him support the household with his alimony. Likemany early modern critics of London's enormous growth, this playwarned: the city is a monster that lives off the money the countryproduces.

APHORISMES (LES PRESSES D'AUJOURD'HUI)

New Mermaids are modernized and fully-annotated editions of classic English plays. Each volume includes:• The playtext, in modern spelling, edited to the highest bibliographical and textual standards• Textual notes recording significant changes to the copytext and variant readings• Glossing notes explaining obscure words and word-play• Critical, contextual and staging notes• Photographs of productions where applicable• A full introduction which provides a critical account of the play, the staging conventions of the time and recent stage history; discusses authorship, date, sources and the text; and gives guidance for further reading.Edited and updated by leading scholars and printed in a clear, easy-to-use format, New Mermaids offer invaluable guidance for actor, student, and theatre-goer alike.

Women beware women; (The Fountainwell drama texts, 11)

The Old Law, or A New Way to Please You is a seventeenth-century tragicomedy written by Thomas Middleton, William Rowley, and Philip Massinger. It was first published in 1656, but is generally thought to have been written about four decades earlier.  The first edition  The play first appeared in a badly-printed 1656 quarto issued by the bookseller Edward Archer (his shop was "at the sign of the Adam and Eve"), with the three dramatists' names on the title page. Scholars have little doubt about the general accuracy of the attribution; the doubt that does exist centers on the role of Massinger, since the play shows many typical signs of being a Middleton/Rowley collaboration. "Probably all critics are sure of the presence of Middleton and Rowley, but Massinger's contribution has been difficult to trace." David Lake, in his study of attribution problems in the Middleton canon, holds that Massinger's share consisted only of a light revision, and that signs of his hand are strongest in the first half of the single scene in Act V, the trial scene.

The Old Law (Garland English Texts)

Rowley, William

Massinger, Philip

Shaw, Catherine M

Taylor&Francis

This wonderful Penguin Classic: Three Jacobean Tragedies s a gem; The White Devil The Revenger's Tragedy, and the Changeling. By the early seventeenth century Renaissance humanism had reached a crisis.; The period of mental unrest, and the sense of moral corruption and ambiguity that followed, provoked the Jacobean dramatists to embittered satire and images of tragic retribution.

Three Jacobean Tragedies: The White Devil; The Revenger's Tragedy; The Changeling (Penguin English Library)

Tourneur, Cyril

Rowley, W.

Webster, John.

Penguin Classics

Four Jacobean City Plays (Penguin Classics)

Marston, J.

JONSON, Ben

Thomas Middleton was one of the most prolific and fascinating playwrights of the Jacobean era, producing nearly fifty theatrical pieces in a quarter of a century. This collection comprises five of his most powerful plays, from the comedies satirizing city life, A Trick to Catch the Old One and A Chaste Maid in Cheapside, to his later tragedies Women Beware Women and The Changeling, in which Middleton reveals a world dominated by the corrupting power of lust and subject to the futility of human pretensions. Also included is The Revenger's Tragedy, originally ascribed to Cyril Tourneur, a Revenge Play infused with sardonic wit and biting irony. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Five Plays (Penguin Classics)

A new, authoritative edition of five classic revenge plays As the Elizabethan era gave way to the reign of James I, England grappled with corruption within the royal court and widespread religious anxiety. Dramatists responded with morally complex plays of dark wit and violent spectacle, exploring the nature of death, the abuse of power, and vigilante justice. This anthology presents five crucial tragedies of the era collected together for the first time, including Shakespeare's 1603 version of Hamletand Middleton's The Revenger's Tragedy, a ferocious satire that reflects the mounting disillusionment of the age. The introduction by Shakespeare scholar Emma Smith explores the political and religious climate behind the plays, as well as their dramatic conventions. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

Five Revenge Tragedies: The Spanish Tragedy; Hamlet; Antonio's Revenge; The Tragedy of Hoffman; The Reve nger's Tragedy (Penguin Classics)

Kyd, Thomas

Chettle, Henry

Marston, John

Shakespeare., William

Following the end of Queen Elizabeth's reign in the early seventeenth century, the new court of King James was beset by political instability and moral corruption. This atmosphere provided fertile ground for the dramatists of the age, whose plays explore the ways in which social decadence and the abuse of power breed resentment and lead inexorably to violence and bloody retribution. In Tourneur's The Revenger's Tragedy, the debauched son of an Italian Duke attempts to rape the virtuous Gloriana - a veiled reference to Elizabeth I. Webster's The White Devil depicts a sinister world of intrigue and murderous infidelity, while The Changeling, perhaps Middleton's supreme achievement, powerfully portrays a woman bringing about her own unwitting destruction. All three are masterpieces of brooding intensity, dominated by images of decay, disillusionment and death.

Three Revenge Tragedies: The Revenger's Tragedy; The White Devil; The Changeling (Penguin Classics)

Timon of Athens is a bitterly intriguing study of a fabulously rich man who wastes his wealth on his friends, and, when he is finally impoverished, learns to despise humanity with a hatred that drives him to his grave. The play's plot structure is schematically clear, and the poetry of Timon's rage is arresting in its savage intensity. Yet readers have often detected loose ends, and the tone of writing is uneven. In his introduction, John Jowett explains how these characteristics arise because the play was written as a collaboration between Shakespeare and Thomas Middleton. This edition pays full justice to Middleton's presence, explaining how his contribution gave the play its distinctive edge. Readers need to read this play as a dialogue between writers of different temperaments, and this edition is the first to make such a reading possible. The introduction provides the fullest account of the play's performance history available. The commentary is the most detailed ever to have been published. Appendices include source materials and a listing of major productions worldwide.

Timon of Athens (Oxford World's Classics)

Reference

Oxford University Press

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