Jacobean City Comedy

List of contents

Preface to the Second Edition; Acknowledgements; 1. City comedy as a genre 2. A fountain stirr’d: city comedy in relation to the social and economic background 3. The approaching equinox: politics and city comedy 4. To strip the ragged follies of the time 5. Marston and the Court: folly and corruption 6. Money makes the world go around: the city satirized 7. Conventional plays 1604-7 8. Middleton and Jonson 9. Bartholomew Fair and The Devil Is an Ass: city comedy at the zenith; Appendix; Notes; Select bibliography; Index

About the author

Brian Gibbons

Summary

The first decade of the Jacobean age witnessed a sudden profusion of comedies satirizing city life; among these were comedies by Ben Jonson, John Marston and Thomas Middleton, as well as the bulk of the repertory of the newly-established children’s companies at Blackfriars and Paul’s. The playwrights self-consciously forged a new genre which attracted London audiences with its images of folly and vice in Court and City, and hack-writing dramatists were prompt to cash in on a new theatrical fashion.
This study, first published in 1980, examines ways in which the Jacobean city comedy reflect on the self-consciousness of audiences and the concern of the dramatists with Jacobean society. This title will be of interest of students of Renaissance Drama, English Literature and Performance.

Product details

• Authors: Brian Gibbons, Professor Brian Gibbons
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd.
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 23.03.2017
• EAN: 9781138279957
• ISBN: 978-1-138-27995-7
• No. of pages: 200
• Series: Routledge Library Editions: Renaissance Drama; Routledge Library Editions: Renaissance Drama
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > English linguistics / literary studies; English, LITERARY CRITICISM / Drama, Literary studies: general, Literary studies: c 1500 to c 1800, Literary studies: plays & playwrights, Literary studies: plays and playwrights