1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910455084703321

Autore

Cartwright Kent <1943->

Titolo

Theatre and humanism : English drama in the sixteenth century / / Kent Cartwright [[electronic resource]]

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cambridge : , : Cambridge University Press, , 1999

ISBN

1-107-11121-8

0-521-03054-4

1-280-15356-3

0-511-11722-1

0-511-14927-1

0-511-30956-2

0-511-48347-3

0-511-05143-3

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (x, 321 pages) : digital, PDF file(s)

Disciplina

822/.309

Soggetti

English drama - Early modern and Elizabethan, 1500-1600 - History and criticism

Theater - England - History - 16th century

Renaissance - England

Humanists - England

England Intellectual life 16th century

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. 249-312) and index.

Nota di contenuto

The humanism of acting: John Heywood's The foure pp -- Wit and science and the dramaturgy of learning -- Playing against type: Gammer Gurton's needle -- Time, tyranny, and suspense in political drama of the 1560s -- Humanism and the dramatizing of women -- The confusions of Gallathea: John Lyly as popular dramatist -- Bearing witness to Tamburlaine, part 1 -- Robert Greene's Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay: the commonwealth of the present moment.

Sommario/riassunto

English drama at the beginning of the sixteenth century was allegorical, didactic and moralistic; but by the end of the century theatre was censured as emotional and even immoral. How could such a change



occur? Kent Cartwright suggests that some theories of early Renaissance theatre - particularly the theory that Elizabethan plays are best seen in the tradition of morality drama - need to be reconsidered. He proposes instead that humanist drama of the sixteenth century is theatrically exciting - rather than literary, elitist and dull as it has often been seen - and socially significant, and he attempts to integrate popular and humanist values rather than setting them against each other. Taking as examples the plays of Marlowe, Heywood, Lyly and Greene, as well as many by lesser-known dramatists, the book demonstrates the contribution of humanist drama to the theatrical vitality of the sixteenth century.