Radical comedy in early modern England : contexts, cultures, performances / Rick Bowers.

Aldershot, England ; Burlington, VT : Ashgate, ©2008.

1 online resource (122 pages) : illustrations

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Identifying a pattern of social defiance, this book explores the radical nature of early modern English comedy and uses comedy as a means to observe changes in human behavior common to the Renaissance. Bowers demonstrates how the satirical comedic actions found within Dekker's pamphlets, Harington's discourse, and the dramas of Marston, Middleton, and Jonson are all driven by energetic comic elements to criticize authority and implement social change.

Taylor & Francis. EBA 2024-2025.

Print version: Bowers, Rick. Radical comedy in early modern England. Aldershot, England ; Burlington, VT : Ashgate, ©2008

Books / Online

English

August 07, 2024

Includes bibliographical references (pages 111-118) and index.

Cover; Contents; Acknowledgments; Figures; 1 Introduction: Comic Performance; 2 Enter the Comic Hero: The Performance of Mak in the Second Shepherds' Play; 3 Wrestling with Comic Villainy: Barabas and other Heels in The Jew of Malta; 4 Grinning and Bearing it: A Plague of Storytelling in The Wonderfull Yeare (1603); 5 Humor in High (and low) Places: Toilet Tales and The Metamorphosis of Ajax; 6 Marston's Absurd Theater: The Antonio Plays; 7 Sex, Lies, Carnival, and Class: A Chaste Maid in Cheapside; 8 Of What Bigness? / Huge: Ben Jonson's Supersized Comedy; Works Cited; Index.

Electronic books.