Overview

A popular and influential play from its first performance in 1611 until the early eighteenth century, 'A King and No King' helped establish tragicomedy as the seventeenth century's favoured dramatic genre, and Beaumont and Fletcher as leading playwrights of the day.Accompanying this newly edited text, an introduction explores the play's sources, both literary and dramatic, and offers a thorough reconsideration of its relation to its social and political context, and contemporary issues of royal absolutism, good governance, and the political role of the aristocracy. In addition, the introduction provides the fullest available account of 'A King and No King''s stage history, tracing the shifts in cultural mores that eroded its popularity and ultimately consigned it to the study rather than the stage. This fully annotated edition encourages an appreciation of the play's very real virtues and will appeal to theatre professionals as well as to students of Renaissance drama. -- .

Full Product Details

9780719080425

Table of Contents

Reviews

'Bliss provides the play with much needed breathing space in her fine introduction - Lee Bliss and the Manchester University Press have produced an edition of a fascinating play to the Revels Play's usual high standards.' Elliott Kendall, TLS 7 October 2005

Author Information

Lee Bliss is Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Santa Barbara

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