ABSTRACT

This anthology offers a full introduction to Renaissance theatre in its historical and political context, along with newly edited and thoroughly annotated texts of the following plays:
* The Spanish Tragedy (Thomas Kyd)
* Arden of Faversham (Anon.)
* Edward II (Christopher Marlowe)
* A Woman Killed with Kindness (Thomas Heywood)
* The Tragedy of Mariam (Elizabeth Cary)
* The Masque of Blackness (Ben Jonson)
* The Knight of the Burning Pestle (Francis Beaumont)
* Epicoene, or the Silent Woman (Ben Jonson)
* The Roaring Girl (Thomas Middleton & Thomas Dekker)
* The Changeling (Thomas Middleton & William Rowley)
* 'Tis Pity She's a Whore (John Ford).
Each play is prefaced by an introductory headnote discussing the thematic focus of the play and its textual history, and is cross-referenced to other plays of the period that relate thematically and generically.
An accompanying website contains a wide selection of contextual documents which supplement the anthology: www.routledge.com/textbooks/0415187346

chapter |13 pages

Introduction

‘The fashion of play-making’: theatre, drama and society in early modern England

chapter |7 pages

Further Reading

play |427 pages

The Plays

chapter |1 pages

Editorial Note

chapter |42 pages

Thomas Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy

chapter |37 pages

Anon., Arden of Faversham

chapter |45 pages

Christopher Marlowe, Edward II

chapter |9 pages

Ben Jonson, The Masque of Blackness

chapter |55 pages

Ben Jonson, Epicoene, or The Silent Woman

chapter |37 pages

John Ford, ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore