Plotting Early Modern London: New Essays on Jacobean City Comedy

Looking at a broad range of plays written between the 1590s and the 1630s satirical master-pieces like Eastward Ho, A Trick to Catch the Old One, The Dutch Courtesan and The Devil is an Ass, blends of romance and satire like The Shoemaker's Holiday and The Knight of the Burning Pestle, and bourgeois oddities like The London Prodigal this volume re-examines early modern city comedy in the light of recently foregrounded historical contexts such as early modern capitalism, urban culture, the Protestant Reformation, and playhouse politics. Further, it explores the interrelations between city comedy and Shakespearean comedy both from the perspective of author rivalry and in terms of modern adaptations: the twenty-first-century concept of 'popular Shakespeare' (above all in the movie sector) seems to realign the comparatively time- and placeless Shakespearean drama with the gritty, noisy and bustling urban scene that has been city comedy's traditional preserve.

Matthias Bauer is Professor of English at Saarland University. Robyn Bolam is Professor of Literature at St Mary's College, Strawberry Hill: a college of the University of Surrey Alan Brissenden is an Honorary Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Adelaide Alizon Brunning is a senior lecturer at the Department of Cultural Studies at the University of Central Lancashire Deborah Cartmell is a Principal Lecturer and English Subject Leader at De Montfort University, Leicesten David Crane has been for some time now a research fellow in the University of Wales at Lampeter Andrew Gurr is a Professor of English at the University of Reading Dieter Mehl is Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Bonn Ruth Morse is Professeur des Universites at the University of Paris VII Denis Diderot Angela Stock is lecturer at the University of Munster Richard Waswo is Professor of English at the University of Geneva Anne-Julia Zwierlein is lecturer at the Centre for British Studies, University of Bamberg