A Short History of English Renaissance Drama

by Helen Hackett

Shakespeare is a towering presence in English and indeed global culture. Yet considered alongside his contemporaries he was not an isolated phenomenon, but the product of a period of astonishing creative fertility. This was an age when new media - popular drama and print - were seized upon avidly and inventively by a generation of exceptionally talented writers. In her sparkling new book, Helen Hackett explores the historical contexts of English Renaissance drama by situating it in the wider history of ideas. She traces the origins of Renaissance theatre in communal religious drama, civic pageantry and court entertainment and vividly describes the playing conditions of Elizabethan and Jacobean playhouses. Examining Marlowe, Shakespeare and Jonson in turn, the author assesses the distinctive contribution made by each playwright to the creation of English drama. She then turns to revenge tragedy, with its gothic poetry of sex and death; city comedy, domestic tragedy and tragicomedy; and gender and drama, with female roles played by boy actors in commercial playhouses while women participated in drama at court and elsewhere.
The book places Renaissance drama in the exciting and vibrant cosmopolitanism of sixteenth-century London.

Genres: Nonfiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published October 5, 2012

Reviews

[Julie Bozza · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really loved this short book, brimming with insight, about English Renaissance Drama. The structure and the concerns were perfect.

- Hackett begins with a look at the historical context of the Renaissance and the Reformation as experienced in England;
- continues on with a discussion of all the practical and social matters that affected how plays were created;
- gives Marlowe, Shakespeare and Jonson each their own chapter;
- discusses the genres and cross-genres of the plays;
- examines questions of gender in terms of boy actors, female characters, female performers, and female dramatists;
- then concludes with an overview of how the plays have fared over the centuries from when they were written right up to the present day.

Hackett could almost have designed that with me in mind. :-)

The whole thing is well-written, easy to read, and very informative. Hackett has a wide perspective on the era; despite all my previous reading, I still learned things and discovered details.

Recommended to anyone interested in this era and the long-lived drama it created!

[Eliza · Rating 3 out of 5]

pretty solid overview with some introduction to theories & arguments. would only rec as a quick begginer's guide or a quick refresher for people with prior knowledge

[lea ౨ৎ]

read for uni

[s]

Indeed

[Salsabeel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simple and actually helpful.

[Sae Kitamura · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very good introduction to the history of English drama in the seventeenth century.

[Brad H · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good overview of some of the issues and key authors from this time period.