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 1580-1642. Three wide-ranging chapters on theatres, dramaturgy and the social, cultural and political conditions of the drama are followed by chapters describing and illustrating various theatrical genres: private and occasional drama, political plays, heroic plays, burlesque, comedy, tragedy, with a final essay on the drama produced during the reign of Charles I. All the essays have been revised and their references updated. An expanded biographical and bibliographical section details the work of the dramatists discussed in the book and the best sources for further study. A chronological table provides a full listing of new plays performed from 1497-1642, with a parallel list of major political and theatrical events.
Preface; A note on dates, references and quotations; Abbreviations; 1. Playhouses and players R. A. Foakes; 2. The arts of the dramatist A. R. Braunmuller; 3. Drama and society Michael Hattaway; 4. Private and occasional drama Martin Butler; 5. Political drama Margot Heinemann; 6. Romance and the heroic play Brian Gibbons; 7. Pastiche, burlesque, tragicomedy Lee Bliss; 8. Comedy Jill Levenson; 9. Tragedy Robert Watson; 10. Caroline drama James Bulman; Biographies and selected bibliography A. R. Braunmuller and Michael Hattaway; Chronological table.
