Comedy is one of the three major genres of English Renaissance drama (with tragedy and history being the other two) and within the comedy genre there are a number of sub-genres. The ‘city comedy’ is one of these sub-genres, one that Shakespeare seemingly never contributed to, and I thought I’d focus on this genre today.… Continue reading Renaissance City Comedies
A while back, I did a guide to early modern dramatic genres and I want to dive into them a bit more. I’m starting with my favourite sub-genre – revenge tragedies – and I’m also planning to write a similar post on city comedies in the coming months. Revenge tragedies were popular in Renaissance England… Continue reading Renaissance Revenge Tragedies
Happy Saturday! I haven’t written about a Shakespeare play in a while so I’m tackling The Taming of the Shrew today, AKA the Shakespeare play that has caused me the most headaches. The Taming of the Shrew is a Shakespearean comedy and, while we may problematise its categorisation as a comedy today, it fits into… Continue reading Shakespeare Saturdays: The Taming of the Shrew
Happy Saturday! Today’s post is a quick look at my top three Shakespearean comedies. Let me know what your favourite comedy is in the comments! A Midsummer Night’s Dream (c.1595) Oh, what a magical play! MND is my favourite Shakespeare comedy by far and it’s almost perfect for me. I love the doubling of characters,… Continue reading Shakespeare Saturdays: Top 3 Comedies
Happy Saturday! I haven’t written about a Shakespeare play in ages so I’m back today with a post about one of Shakespeare’s oddest plays: Troilus and Cressida. Troilus and Cressida is a Shakespearean ‘problem play’ that was probably written in 1602. It’s the only true problem play because it really doesn’t fit into any specific… Continue reading Shakespeare Saturdays: Troilus and Cressida
In recent posts, I’ve introduced some of the common forms of prose and poetry in Renaissance England and in this post, I’ll be exploring Renaissance drama. This post is going to be a little different to the others since there are fewer forms of drama: general plays, masques, academic drama, and closet drama. I’m sure… Continue reading An Introduction to English Renaissance Drama
Happy Saturday! I’m back with another post about one of Shakespeare’s contemporaries and this time we’re looking at John Ford. Ford actually started his dramatic career after Shakespeare’s death but he was a Jacobean playwright so I’m including him in this series. Where possible, I’ve linked to free versions of each text. Some links are… Continue reading Shakespeare Saturdays: John Ford (Shakespeare’s Contemporaries #9)
Happy Saturday! It has been a couple of months since I wrote about one of Shakespeare’s contemporaries but I’m back today with a post about Thomas Dekker. Enjoy… Thomas Dekker (c.1572 – 1632) was an English dramatist and pamphleteer. His career spanned both the late Elizabethan era, the entire Jacobean era, and the early years… Continue reading Shakespeare Saturdays: Thomas Dekker (Shakespeare’s Contemporaries #8)
Happy Saturday! Today I’m looking at sonnet 28 because it has been a while since I did a sonnet analysis. Today’s sonnet post is a little bit different to my previous ones because I’ve written a basic line-by-line analysis of the poem. Let me know if this format works or if I should just stick… Continue reading Shakespeare Saturdays: Sonnet 28
I’m starting a new monthly series on my blog called Early Modern Mondays and I just wanted to start this new series by exploring my top five early modern tragedies. These plays aren’t necessarily the “best” tragedies written during the era but they’re my favourites and I’ll explain why they’re my favourites in this post.… Continue reading Early Modern Mondays: Top 5 Tragedies
warm days will never cease 