Product Description: THE greatest of English dramatists except Shakespeare, the first literary dictator and poet-laureate, a writer of verse, prose, satire, and criticism who most potently of all the men of his time affected the subsequent course of English letters: such was Ben Jonson, and as such his strong personality assumes an interest to us almost unparalleled, at least in his age...read more

Product Description: Magical Transformations on the Early Modern Stage furthers the debate about the cultural work performed by representations of magic on the early modern English stage. It considers the ways in which performances of magic reflect and feed into a sense of national identity, both in the form of magic contests and in its recurrent linkage to national defence; the extent to which magic can trope other concerns, and what these might be; and how magic is staged and what the representational strategies and techniques might mean...read more

Product Description: Described by Coleridge as having one of the three mostperfectly constructed plots in literary history, The Alchemist is aplay that is strikingly modern in its cynicism.This guide, with new essays by leadingscholars, provides a comprehensive survey of major issues in the contemporarystudy of the play and points to new avenues for critical exploration...read more

This collection of original essays explores the great quests and questions into the unknown that occupied and troubled the early modern world. The topics addressed are in many cases hitherto untouched by modern scholarship. Writings examined include canonical texts of early modern literature and other less familiar works engaged in the transcultural exchanges of their times. Themes range from mathematics to confessional exile, to the potency of goods and commerce, to imaginings of the most remote, exotic, and dangerous locations: topics of ever-increasing interest. The overarching construction of the collection is provided by a full, historical and critical introduction, and by a tripartite division of essays into travel, commerce, and the domestication of the foreign. Strikingly illustrated with Renaissance art and woodcuts, it is rounded out with a full index of names, ideas, and themes, making it accessible to scholars and readers with a thirst for the real mysteries of our past.

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Product Description: This edition of Ben Jonson's four middle comedies places the works in the popular history and culture of the times, 1605-1614, and surveys the influences, both classical and contemporary, on Jonson as a playwright. On-the-page annotations recreate the audiences perception of the plays as performances by commenting on the stage-directions, the self-conscious theatricality of characters and scenes, and the vivid colloquialisms of early modern London that give the dialogue a heightened dimension of realism...read more