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
Happy Saturday! Shakespeare Saturdays are back and I’m kicking things off with Much Ado About Nothing. Probably written around 1598, Much Ado About Nothing is a Shakespearean comedy. It was published in quarto in 1600, where the title page states that the play was ‘sundry times publicly acted’, allowing the play to be dated to… Continue reading Shakespeare Saturdays: Much Ado About Nothing
Happy Saturday! Last week I wrote an overview of the life and works of Thomas Middleton – one of Shakespeare’s contemporaries and one of my favourite playwrights – and I’m focusing on one of his plays this week: A Game at Chess (1624). I think this is the first time I’ve ever written a Shakespeare Saturdays… Continue reading Shakespeare Saturdays: A Game at Chess by Thomas Middleton
Happy Saturday! I have three favourite playwrights from the early modern era: Christopher Marlowe, John Webster, and Thomas Middleton. I haven’t written about any of them yet in this series about Shakespeare’s contemporaries, which is a shame, but I’m correcting that error today by focusing on the life and work of Thomas Middleton. I’m also… Continue reading Shakespeare Saturdays: Thomas Middleton (Shakespeare’s Contemporaries #7)
warm days will never cease 