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"Renaissance Drama, Excluding Shakespeare"

[The following represents a very selective and dated bibliography

[Note: the following works that mention Shakespeare have additional information about the stage and theatrical presentations of the era, as well as material about social practices, philosophical and religious beliefs, etc.]

Barber, C. L. Creating Elizabethan Tragedy. Chicago UP, 1988. [for Kyd and Marlowe]

Bergeron, David M., and Geraldo U. de Sousa. Shakespeare: A Study & Research Guide. UP of Kansas, 1995. [a research guide that provides an excellent list of secondary sources]

Bradbrook, M. C. John Webster: Citizen and Dramatist. New York: Columbia UP, 1980.

Braunmuller, A. R., and Michael Hattaway, eds. The Cambridge Companion to English Renaissance Drama. Cambridge UP, 1990. [all the dramatists we're currently studying, with a good bibliography]

Gibbons, Brian. Jacobean City Comedy. London and New York: Methuen & Co., 1980. [good information on Jonson]

Gurr, Andrew. Playgoing in Shakespeare's London. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge UP, 1989.

___. The Shakespearean Stage, 1574-1642. Cambridge UP, 1980. [still the basic "handbook" for understanding the era's dramatists, plays, stage practices, acting styles, etc.]

Howard, Jean. The Stage and Social Struggle in Early Modern England. London and New York: Routledge, 1994. [how culture and society shaped the drama]

Leggatt, Alexander. English Drama: Shakespeare to the Restoration, 1590-1660. London and New York: Longman, 1988. [all the dramatists we're currently studying, with a general bibliography]

Levin, Harry. The Overreacher: A Study of Christopher Marlowe. Harvard UP, 1952. [still regarded as the most significant work on Marlowe]

McDonald, Charles Osborne. The Rhetoric of Tragedy. U of Massachusetts P, 1966.

Muir, Kenneth, and Samuel Schoenbaum, eds. A New Companion to Shakespeare Studies. Cambridge UP, 1984. [excellent essays on everything from philosophical background, physical layout of the theatres, to acting styles]

Righter, Anne Barton. Shakespeare and the Idea of the Play. New York: Barnes & Noble, Inc., 1969. [an excellent overview of the development of the Renaissance stage and its practices]

 

For more specific books and essays on individual dramatists, check the MLA International Bibliography?on disk?and what holdings our library has: The Regents Renaissance Drama Series (University  of Nebraska Press) for example, has good introductions to the plays we're studying.

 

 

 

This page maintained by Wayne Narey; suggestions and comments appreciated--please contact wnarey@astate.edu