Ben Jonson, John Marston and Early Modern Drama

Satire and the Audience
1. Auflage 2016
ISBN: 978-1-137-56398-9
Verlag: Palgrave Macmillan UK

Buch, Englisch, 223 Seiten, HC runder Rücken kaschiert, Format (B × H): 145 mm x 222 mm, Gewicht: 3992 g

This book examines the influence of John Marston, typically seen as a minor figure among early modern dramatists, on his colleague Ben Jonson. While Marston is usually famed more for his very public rivalry with Jonson than for the quality of his plays, this book argues that such a view of Marston seriously underestimates his importance to the theatre of his time. In it, the author contends that Marston's plays represent an experiment in a new kind of satiric drama, with origins in the humanist tradition of serio ludere. His works—deliberately unpredictable, inconsistent and metatheatrical—subvert theatrical conventions and provide confusingly multiple perspectives on the action, forcing their spectators to engage actively with the drama and the moral dilemmas that it presents. The book argues that Marston's work thus anticipates and perhaps influenced the mid-period work of Ben Jonson, in plays such as Sejanus, Volpone and The Alchemist.

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Yearling, Rebecca

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Theater- und Filmwissenschaft | Andere Darstellende Künste Theaterwissenschaft Theatertheorie, Ästhetik des Theaters, Theaterkritik
• Geisteswissenschaften Theater- und Filmwissenschaft | Andere Darstellende Künste Theaterwissenschaft Theatergeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Englische Literatur
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literaturwissenschaft: Dramen und Dramatiker

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgements
A Note on Editions
Introduction: Why does Marston Matter?
Prologue: The Problem of the Audience
1. The Playwrights and the Audience
2. Dramatic Satire and the Crisis of Authority
3. John Marston: Provoking the Audience
4. Jonson and Marston: 'I write just in thy vein, I'
Conclusion
Appendix: The Boy Actors: The Question of Intent
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Über Autor(innen)

Rebecca Yearling is Lecturer in English at Keele University, UK. Her research focuses on early modern drama both on the page and in performance. She has previously published in journals including Essays in Criticism and Studies in English Literature.