Theatre - History of Theatre I: Plays

Centering on the Greek army's attempt to win the trust of their master bowman Philoctetes, without whom they cannot win the Trojan War, Philoctetes is a morally complex and timelessly relevant meditation on ends and means, on patriotism, and on the relationship between public duty and private interest. - Summary from Ebook Central

Includes play The Brothers/Adelphoe by Terence

Includes the play Everyman by Anonymous

A fresh translation of five important and popular comedies from the Italian Renaissance, along with an introduction addressing the texts, their translation, and the social and cultural world of Renaissance comedy. At the turn of the sixteenth century, Italian playwrights rediscovered and recast an old art form--the ancient Latin comedy--to create witty, ribald, and intricately plotted plays that delighted Renaissance audiences with their clever reversals of gender and class roles. Five Comedies from the Italian Renaissance brings together the best of these works in lively new translations by Laura Giannetti and Guido Ruggiero, who also place the comedies in their cultural and social context. Presenting a fresh perspective on the Italian Renaissance, these deft translations allow modern readers to experience the original artistry and carnivalesque humor of these delightfully profane and irreverent literary classics. The five plays: The Comedy of Calandro by Bernardo Dovizi de Bibbiena; The Mandrake Root by Niccolò Machiavelli; The Master of the Horse by Pietro Aretino; The Deceived by the Academy of the Intronati of Siena; and A Venetian Comedy by anonymous

This anthology offers a full introduction to Renaissance theatre in its historical and political context, along with newly edited and thoroughly annotated texts of the following plays: * The Spanish Tragedy (Thomas Kyd) * Arden of Faversham (Anon.) * Edward II (Christopher Marlowe) * A Woman Killed with Kindness (Thomas Heywood) * The Tragedy of Mariam (Elizabeth Cary) * The Masque of Blackness (Ben Jonson) * The Knight of the Burning Pestle (Francis Beaumont) * Epicoene, or the Silent Woman (Ben Jonson) * The Roaring Girl (Thomas Middleton & Thomas Dekker) * The Changeling (Thomas Middleton & William Rowley) * 'Tis Pity She's a Whore (John Ford). Each play is prefaced by an introductory headnote discussing the thematic focus of the play and its textual history, and is cross-referenced to other plays of the period that relate thematically and generically. An accompanying website contains a wide selection of contextual documents which supplement the anthology: www.routledge.com/textbooks/0415187346

Pierre Corneille's tragicomedy Le Cid is based on the legend of the same name. It tells the story of Rodrigue and Chimene, whose fathers' feud violently interrupts their love. Though they never disavow their love for one another, revenge is deemed more important to each. Corneille's play sparked much dispute about dramatic method.