Introduction to English Renaissance Comedy

This guide provides a comprehensive introduction to Elizabethan, Jacobean and Caroline comedy, covering both public and private theatres, encompassing the eclective, experimental nature of this comedy: its departures from the mainstream New Comedy tradition and its searching, witty analysis of social and personal relations in court, city and country. This book, an analysis of some of the richest comedies of the periods, makes sometimes inexpected connection between them: Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Tempest, Lyly's Endymion, Greene's Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay, Marston's The Malcontent, Middleton's Michaelmas Term, Jonson's Bartholemew Fair, Shirley's The Lady of Pleasure and Brome's A Jovial Crew. Through these plays the reader is given a picture of English comedy in one of its most creative periods.