Renaissance Drama An Anthology of Plays and Entertainments

Experience the best and most noteworthy works of Renaissance drama

This Third Edition of Renaissance Drama: An Anthology of Plays and Entertainments is the latest installment of a groundbreaking collection of non-Shakespearean Renaissance drama. Covering not only the popular drama of the period, Renaissance Drama includes masques, Lord Mayor shows, royal performances, and the popular mystery plays of the time. The selections fairly represent the variety and quality of Renaissance drama and they include works of scholarly and literary interest.

Each work included in this edition comes with an insightful and illuminating introduction that places the piece in its historical and cultural context, with accompanying text explaining the significance of each piece and the ways in which it interacts with other works.

New to this edition are:

• The famous entertainment for Elizabeth at Kenilworth
• George Peele’s remarkably inventive The Old Wives’ Tale
• The oft-forgotten history of Thomas of Woodstock, predecessor to Shakespeare’s Richard II
• John Lyly’s Gallathea, a work which explores gender and love, written for the Children’s Company at Saint Paul’s
• Ben Johnson’s Volpone and the controversial Epicoene

Perfect for scholars, teachers, and readers of the English Renaissance, Renaissance Drama: An Anthology of Plays and Entertainments belongs on the bookshelves of anyone with even a passing interest in the drama of its time.

Arthur F. Kinney is Thomas W. Copeland Professor of Literary History Emeritus in the University of Massachusetts and Founding Director of the Massachusetts Center for Interdisciplinary Renaissance Studies. He is the author and editor of a number of books and essays, including Renaissance Drama (editor, 2005), Shakespeare and Cognition (2006), Elizabethan and Jacobean England (2010), The Oxford Handbook of Shakespeare (editor, 2012), and Renaissance Reflections, Selected Essays 1976-2014 (2014). He is the only recipient of both the Paul Oskar Kristeller Lifetime Achievement Award from the Renaissance Society of America and the Jean Roberts Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Sidney Society.   

David A. Katz is Visiting Assistant Professor of English at the College of the Holy Cross. His articles have been published in The Shakespearean International Yearbook, English Literary Renaissance, Studies in Philology, Symbolism: An International Annual of Critical Aesthetics, The Sidney Journal, and other periodicals.   

Acknowledgments Viii

A Note On The Texts Ix

Preface To The Third Edition X

Introduction 1

Brief Lives 13

Chronology 22

Maps 31

Anonymous 33

The Noble Triumphant Coronation Of Queen Anne, Wife Unto The Most Noble King Henry The VIII

Richard Mulcaster 43

The Queen’s Majesty’s Passage

George Gascoigne 61

The Princely Pleasures At The Court At Kenilworth

Sir Philip Sidney 89

The Lady Of May

Thomas Kyd 99

The Spanish Tragedy

John Lyly 149

Gallathea

Anonymous 187

The Tragical History Of Thomas Of Woodstock

Christopher Marlowe 243

The Tragical History Of D. Faustus

Anonymous 277

Arden Of Faversham

Christopher Marlowe 321

The Troublesome Reign And Lamentable Death Of Edward The Second

George Peele 375

The Old Wives’ Tale

Mary Sidney, Countess Of Pembroke 401

The Tragedy Of Antony

Thomas Dekker 441

The Shoemakers’ Holiday

John Marston 485

The Malcontent

Anthony Munday 543

The Triumphs Of Re-United Britannia

Thomas Heywood 557

A Woman Killed With Kindness

Francis Beaumont 597

The Knight Of The Burning Pestle

Ben Jonson 647

Volpone Or The Fox

Ben Jonson 717

The Masque Of Queens

Ben Jonson 735

Epiocene, Or The Silent Woman

Thomas Middleton 815

A Chaste Maid In Cheapside

Elizabeth Cary 863

The Tragedy Of Mariam

John Webster 905

The Duchess Of Malfi

Anonymous 967

The Barriers

William Rowley, Thomas Deckker, And John Ford 977

The Witch Of Edmonton

Thomas Middleton And William Rowley 1033

The Changeling

John Ford 1081

’Tis Pity She’s A Whore

Margaret Cavendish 1129

The Convent Of Pleasure: A Comedy

Index 1157

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