Full Description
With summaries, discussions, and excerpts from primary source documents, this book examines Shakespeare's world through careful consideration of the historical background of four of his comedies.
Comedy was popular during the Renaissance, and it was also one of Shakespeare's specialties. The four plays discussed in this book, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Merchant of Venice, Twelfth Night and The Tempest, span Shakespeare's career and remind us that Shakespeare, more than any of his contemporaries, explored the possibilities of comedy, consistently developing new approaches to the genre.
Shakespeare was a fairly traditional playwright, well aware of the long tradition of comedy, which dates back to the Greeks and Romans. This book places Shakespeare's comedies in their historical context. It includes dedicated chapters on each of the four comedies, with each chapter providing a plot summary, a discussion of the play's historical background and significance, and excerpts from primary source documents related to the play. An introduction surveys the historical background of the plays, while a timeline chronicles key events that influenced them. Suggestions for further reading direct readers to additional sources of information.
Contents
Series Foreword,
Introduction,
A Note on Sources,
Chronology,
1 A Midsummer Night's Dream,
Synopsis of A Midsummer Night's Dream,
Historical Background of A Midsummer Night's Dream,
Why We Read A Midsummer Night's Dream,
Historical Explorations of A Midsummer Night's Dream,
Documenting A Midsummer Night's Dream,
Source Texts,
Document: Ovid, Metamorphoses, Book IV, ca. ad 8,
Document: Plutarch, Parallel Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans, ad 75,
Document: Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, "The Knight's Tale," 1476,
Document: Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, ca. 1591 and 1595,
Magic and the Supernatural,
Document: Reginald Scot, The Discovery of Witchcraft, 1584,
Document: Anonymous, "The Mad Merry Pranks of Robin Goodfellow," ca. 1628,
Document: Anonymous, Robin Good-Fellow; His Mad Prankes, and Merry Jests, 1628,
Queen Elizabeth,
Document: Queen Elizabeth, "On Monsieur's Departure," ca. 1582,
Document: Queen Elizabeth, "Speech to the Troops at Tilbury," 1588,
Document: Edmund Spenser, "Letter to Raleigh" in The Faerie Queene, 1590-1596,
Suggested Readings,
2 The Merchant of Venice,
Synopsis of The Merchant of Venice,
Historical Background of The Merchant of Venice,
Why We Read The Merchant of Venice,
Historical Explorations of The Merchant of Venice,
Documenting The Merchant of Venice,
Source Texts,
Document: Anonymous, Gesta Romanorum, 13th Century,
Document: Giovanni Fiorentino, Il Pecorone, 14th Century,
Document: Christopher Marlowe, The Jew of Malta, 1589-1590,
Renaissance Jews and Anti-Semitism,
Document: "Edict of Expulsion," Statute of the Jewry, 1275,
Document: Anonymous, "A New Song, Shewing the Crueltie of Gernutus a Jew," ca. 1620,
Document: William Camden, The History of the Most Renowned and Victorious Princess Elizabeth, 1630,
Venice and the Economic Exchange,
Document: Simonds d'Ewes, Parliamentary Debate on Usury, 1571,
Document: Shakespeare, Sonnets, 1609,
Document: Thomas Coryat, Coryat's Crudities Hastily Gobbled Up in Five Months Travels in France, Italy, &c, 1611,
Suggested Readings,
3 Twelfth Night,
Synopsis of Twelfth Night,
Historical Background of Twelfth Night,
Why We Read Twelfth Night,
Historical Explorations of Twelfth Night,
Documenting Twelfth Night,
Source Texts,
Document: G'Ingannati, or The Deceived Ones, 1531,
Document: Barnabe Rich, "Apolonius and Silla," 1581,
Document: John Lyly, Gallathea, 1588,
Home and Court,
Document: Baldassare Castiglione, Il Cortegiano or The Book of Courtier, 1528,
Document: Robert Armin, Fool upon Fool, 1608,
Document: William Perkins, Christian Economy, 1608,
Clothing and Identity,
Document: "Statutes of Apparel," 1574,
Document: Edward Alleyn and Philip Henslowe, "An Inventory of Costumes," ca. 1600,
Document: Shakespeare, Sonnets, 1609,
Document: Thomas Middleton and Thomas Dekker, The Roaring Girl, 1611,
Document: Hic Mulier and Haec-Vir, 1620,
Document: William Prynne, Histrio-Mastix, 1633,
Suggested Readings,
4 The Tempest,
Synopsis of The Tempest,
Historical Background of The Tempest,
Why We Read The Tempest,
Historical Explorations of The Tempest,
Documenting The Tempest,
Source Texts,
Document: Desiderius Erasmus, "The Shipwreck," 1518,
Document: Michel de Montaigne, "Of Cannibals," 1580,
Document: William Strachey, A True Reportory of the Wracke, and Redemption of Sir Thomas Gates, 1625,
Utopias and the New World,
Document: Ovid, Metamorphoses, ca. ad 8,
Document: Sir Thomas More, Utopia, 1516,
Document: John Dee, General and Rare Memorials Pertaining to the Perfect Arte of Navigation, 1577,
Document: Thomas Hariot, The Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia, 1588,
Masques and Spectacle,
Document: Sir Philip Sidney, "Defense of Poesy," ca. 1580,
Document: Ben Jonson, The Masque of Blackness, 1605,
Document: Ben Jonson, Bartholomew Fair, 1614,
Suggested Readings,
Index,
