The Cambridge Companion to English Renaissance Drama by A R Braunmuller

The Cambridge Companion to English Renaissance Drama by A R Braunmuller

This second edition of the Companion offers students up-to-date factual and interpretative material about the principal theatres, playwrights and plays of the most important period of English drama, from 15801642. All the essays have been revised and their references updated; the substantial biographical and bibliographical section has been expanded.

"An intelligent compilation of current knowledge and hypotheses in the field of Renaissance drama, it is a valuable corrective to existing handbooks..The ten essays cover a lot of ground with a minimum of duplication...Most readers will discover some fresh insights into the work of major dramatists." - Medieval and Renaissance Drama in England, Michael Shapiro
"In its newly revised form, this work solidifies its status as the best single-volume introduction to the non-Shakespearean English drama of the later Elizabethan, Jacobean, and Caroline periods." - Sixteenth Century Journal, Arnold W. Preussner, Truman State University

William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in April 1564, and his birth is traditionally celebrated on April 23. The facts of his life, known from surviving documents, are sparse. He was one of eight children born to John Shakespeare, a merchant of some standing in his community. William probably went to the King's New School in Stratford, but he had no university education. In November 1582, at the age of eighteen, he married Anne Hathaway, eight years his senior, who was pregnant with their first child, Susanna. She was born on May 26, 1583. Twins, a boy, Hamnet ( who would die at age eleven), and a girl, Judith, were born in 1585. By 1592 Shakespeare had gone to London working as an actor and already known as a playwright. A rival dramatist, Robert Greene, referred to him as an upstart crow, beautified with our feathers. Shakespeare became a principal shareholder and playwright of the successful acting troupe, the Lord Chamberlain's Men (later under James I, called the King' s Men). In 1599 the Lord Chamberlain's Men built and occupied the Globe Theater in Southwark near the Thames River. Here many of Shakespeare's plays were performed by the most famous actors of his time, including Richard Burbage, Will Kempe, and Robert Armin. In addition to his 37 plays, Shakespeare had a hand in others, including Sir Thomas More and The Two Noble Kinsmen, and he wrote poems, including Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece. His 154 sonnets were published, probably without his authorization, in 1609. In 1611 or 1612 he gave up his lodgings in London and devoted more and more time to retirement in Stratford, though he continued writing such plays as The Tempest and Henry VII until about 1613. He died on April 23 1616, and was buried in Holy Trinity Church, Stratford. No collected edition of his plays was published during his life-time, but in 1623 two members of his acting company, John Heminges and Henry Condell, put together the great collection now called the First Folio.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780521527996
ISBN 10	0521527996
Title	The Cambridge Companion to English Renaissance Drama
Author	A R Braunmuller
Series	Cambridge Companions To Literature
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Cambridge University Press
Year published	2003-09-25
Number of pages	488
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.