A Jovial Crew Contributor(s): Brome, Richard (Author), Stern, Tiffany (Editor), McMullan, Gordon (Editor) |
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ISBN: 1408130017 ISBN-13: 9781408130018 Publisher: Arden Shakespeare OUR PRICE: $114.00 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: March 2014 |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - History - Art | History - General - Language Arts & Disciplines | Linguistics - General |
Dewey: 822.3 |
Series: Arden Early Modern Drama |
Physical Information: 0.9" H x 5.4" W x 8" (0.95 lbs) 328 pages |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: A Jovial Crew, or the Merry Beggars, is a comedy about four noble lovers who join the beggar community for a pastoral life of dance and song. Or is it? Whilst maintaining its unremitting good humour, A Jovial Crew shows that the literary depiction of beggar life, and real beggar life, are profoundly different. Daily aspects of life in the beggar world - poverty, dirt, licentiousness - come as a surprise to the well-born, who are ultimately led to question their own values. The last production mounted before theatres were closed for the English Civil War, A Jovial Crew's exploration of class, commonwealth, kinship and kingship shows an intense engagement with contemporary politics. This edition, with dedicated sections on music and language in the play, argues that A Jovial Crew also offers a nostalgic farewell to English theatre. It explores Brome's attitude to performance and print, and follows A Jovial Crew from its first, Caroline staging, to its later manifestations as a Restoration comedy, an eighteenth-century opera, and a twentieth-century proto-Marxist tragicomedy. |
Contributor Bio(s): Gossett, Suzanne: - Suzanne Gossett is Professor of English at Loyola University, Chicago. |