Antonio and Mellida: John Marston

by W Gair (Editor)

Overview

Antonio and Mellida was the first play by John Marston performed by the newly revived Paul's Company in 1599. Marston sought to display a variety of talents, comic, tragic, satiric and historical, advertising his own dramatic skills and the prowess of the choristers of Paul's. The play is based on incidents in the reigns of Sforza, Francesco, Galeazzo and Lodovico, who were Dukes of Milan in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Marston displays a detailed knowledge of the dramatic works of Shakespeare, Seneca, Kyd and Nashe as well as the prose of Sidney, Erasmus, Montaigne, Florio and others.

This edition relates the play to a wide variety of literary contexts. It also includes a comprehensive introduction, an analysis of staging, and full commentary. The text is based on a collation of all known copies of the 1602 Quarto and is presented in a thoroughly modernised format.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780719071973
Publisher:	Manchester University Press
Publication date:	03/03/2005
Series:	The Revels Plays
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	5.43(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.42(d)

About the Author

W. Reavley Gair is Professor of English at the University of New Brunswick, Canada

Table of Contents

General Editors' Preface
Preface
Abbreviations
Introduction
1. The text (a) The quarto
(b) Later editions
(c) This edition
2. John Marston's contemporary reputation
3. Sources
4. Date
5. The play and its purposes
6. The play and its sequel
7. The play in its theatre
'The History of Antonio and Mellida'
Glossarial index to the commentary