Shakespeare is usually set apart from his contemporaries, in kind no less than quality. This book, the long-awaited final volume in the Oxford History of English Literature, sees Elizabethan drama as drawn together by a shared need to deal with contradictory pressures from heterogeneous audiences, censorious authorities, profit driven managers, and authors looking for classic status and social esteem. Hunter follows the compromises and contradictions of the Elizabethan repertory, examining how Shakespeare and his fellow dramatists were able to move easily from vulgar realism to poetic transcendence.
"For each friend and correspondent Miss Carter uses a distinct tone. The contents of her letters are tailored to meet the character, the interests, the concerns, the situation and style of life of the person to whom she is writing; and each letter reflects the particular relationships between Miss Carter and her correspondent."--BOOK JACKET.
"Finally available to modern scholars, this book is the first critical edition of these two plays by Edward Moore. The success of the initial run of Moore's sentimental comedy The Foundling (1748) was due in part to its cast, which included Susannah Maria Cibber and David Garrick, and the play continued to enjoy moderate success on the London stage. It remained popular among critics throughout the eighteenth century and was reprinted and performed regularly in the nineteenth. In the twentieth century, as the most important and the best sentimental comedy of the mid-eighteenth century, it has been generally accepted by literary historians as the bridge between the comedies of Colley Cibber and Richard Steele in the first part of the century and those of Hugh Kelly and Richard Cumberland in the last. The initial run of Moore's domestic tragedy The Gamester(1753), with Garrick in the title role, was also largely successful. From its first revival in 1771 to its last in 1871, the play was performed by Britain's finest actors and actresses - and performed more frequently on the London stage than any other Restoration or eighteenth-century tragedy." "Anthony Amberg's introduction discusses the sources and composition, production, publication and reception, and final revision of both plays. The text of The Foundling is based on Moore's holograph manuscript, that of The Gamester on the first edition. In both the author's spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and italicization have been retained, and both have been provided with full textual and explanatory notes."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
This volume forms part of the 5 volume set Early English Stages 1300-1660. This set examines the history of the development of dramatic spectacle and stage convention in England from the beginning of the fourteenth century to 1660.
While under arrest in 1750 on suspicion of producing a seditious pamphlet Eliza Haywood insisted she ‘never wrote any thing in a political way’. This study of the life and works, the first full-length biography of Haywood in nearly a century, takes the measure of her duplicity.
In recent years there has been a considerable revival of interest in music in eighteenth-century Britain. This interest has now expanded beyond the consideration of composers and their music to include the performing institutions of the period and their relationship to the wider social scene. The collection of essays presented here offers a portrayal of concert life in Britain that contributes greatly to the wider understanding of social and cultural life in the eighteenth century. Music was not merely a pastime but was irrevocably linked with its social, political and literary contexts. The perspectives of performers, organisers, patrons, audiences, publishers, copyists and consumers are considered here in relation to the concert experience. All of the essays taken together construct an understanding of musical communities and the origins of the modern concert system. This is achieved by focusing on the development of music societies; the promotion of musical events; the mobility and advancement of musicians; systems of patronage; the social status of musicians; the repertoire performed and published; the role of women pianists and the 'topography' of concerts. In this way, the book will not only appeal to music specialists, but also to social and cultural historians.
