Marlowe and the Popular Tradition: Innovation in the English Drama Before 1595Rejecting the traditional stereotypes of Marlowe (spy, troublemaker, homosexual, atheist, university wit) this study considers him as a popular dramatist who inherited an audience with certain expectations and shared experiences. It explores his engagement with the traditions of the popular stage in the 1580s and early 1590s and offers a new approach to his major plays in terms of staging and audience response. This account of English drama in these important but largely neglected years challenges the narratives of change in late 16th century. It Discusses Marlowe's plays in relation to some 30 other playtexts, earlier and contemporary, including Shakespeare's early plays. Marlowe emerges not so much as a precursor of Shakespeare but as an innovator and catalyst of change, the playwright who exploited and transformed the traditional materials of popular drama. |
From inside the book
Results 1-3 of 40
Page 16
... language presents problems for description , as it may include anything that is seen and heard during performance . Or , for that matter , not seen and not heard : in the theatre even gaps in language - silence and empty space can be ...
... language presents problems for description , as it may include anything that is seen and heard during performance . Or , for that matter , not seen and not heard : in the theatre even gaps in language - silence and empty space can be ...
Page 88
... Language shrinks in significance as Edward's son oversimplifies , reducing the issues in the final moments of the play to simple sets of antitheses : ' sweet father ' and ' wicked traitor ' , ' monstrous treachery ' and ' innocency ...
... Language shrinks in significance as Edward's son oversimplifies , reducing the issues in the final moments of the play to simple sets of antitheses : ' sweet father ' and ' wicked traitor ' , ' monstrous treachery ' and ' innocency ...
Page 91
... language : ' Why so . They barked apace a month ago ; Now , on my life , they'll neither bark nor bite ' ( 4.3.33-4 ) . That this lack of eloquence is a deliberate rhetorical effect is indicated by Edward's switching a few lines later ...
... language : ' Why so . They barked apace a month ago ; Now , on my life , they'll neither bark nor bite ' ( 4.3.33-4 ) . That this lack of eloquence is a deliberate rhetorical effect is indicated by Edward's switching a few lines later ...
Contents
Approaches and contexts | 14 |
Viewing the sign | 36 |
Lessons of history | 67 |
Copyright | |
4 other sections not shown
Other editions - View all
Marlowe and the Popular Tradition: Innovation in the English Drama before 1595 Ruth Lunney No preview available - 2011 |
Common terms and phrases
action Angels appears attention audience aware Barabas becomes called ceremony challenge character complex Conscience contemporary context continue conventional critical cultural death debatable defined developed direct discussion drama earlier early Edward effect elements Elizabethan emblem emblematic emotional English especially example expectations exploit Faustus figures framing Henry important individual instances interpretation kind King language late later less London Looking Lords Marlowe Marlowe's Marlowe's plays matter means moments morality narrative nature notes offers particular pattern performance perhaps perspectives play's players playhouse plays political popular position possible practice presented Press Prologue provides reference reflect relationship Renaissance response rhetoric Richard scene seen sense Shakespeare shift significant simply sixteenth-century social space spectators speech stage structures studies suggests Tamburlaine theatre theatrical experience Three Ladies tion traditional Tragedy University values Vice visual signs voices