The Living Monument: Shakespeare and the Theatre of his Time

by M. C. Bradbrook

Overview

Powerful and diversified as it already was, theatrical life in London focused in 1576 upon the opening in Shoreditch of James Burbage's Arena Theatre. Here the plays of Shakespeare, with those of many other writers, shaped and were shaped by popular demand. His company, as Lord Hunsdon's Men, settled in the theatre from 1594 to 1598. The Arena was the model for a dozen later structures. In this book Professor Bradbrook characterizes Shakespeare's achievements and those of his contemporaries and endeavours to 'place' them in their social and differing theatrical contexts. Part I is concerned with the sociology of the theatre and traces the evolution of the new drama from the later years of Elizabeth into the more established conditions of Jacobean times. Part II shows the interaction of Jonson's work for the court with Shakespeare's for the popular stage. As the leading writer now for the King's Men at the Globe I, Shakespeare's reaction to Jonson's challenge and stimulus was an increasing use of romantic elements in his plays, as he integrated the material demanded by the very different audiences at the Globe, the Blackfriars and the court. Finally in Part III, she outlines the post-Shakespearean developments.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521295307
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	07/05/1979
Series:	History of Elizabethan Drama Ser. , #6
Edition description:	Revised ed.
Pages:	308
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.71(d)

Table of Contents

List of plates; Preface; Acknowledgements; Theatre map of London, 1520–1642; Table of theatre companies; Part I. The Sociology of the Theatre: 1. The theatre and its poet; 2. The triple bond: actors, audience, playwrights; 3. Shakespeare's Histories and the structure of Tudor society; 4. Social changes and the evolution of Ben Jonson's court masques; 5. Jonson and the image of Jacobean London; 6. The manifold theatres of Jacobean London and their poets; Part II. Jacobean Shakespeare: 7. Macbeth: the sublimation of spectacle; 8. King Lear and the kingdom of Fools and Beggars; 9. Images of love and war: Othello, Coriolanus, Antony and Cleopatra; 10. Entry to romance: Pericles and Cymbeline; 11. Open form in The Winter's Tale; 12. The Tempest; 13. Shakespeare as collaborator; Part II. Caroline Curtain Act: 14. Masque and pastoral; Notes; Index.