The Shoemaker's Holiday: by Thomas Dekker (The Revels Plays) - Softcover

Thomas Dekker

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0719030994 ISBN 13: 9780719030994

Publisher: Manchester University Press, 1999

Synopsis

Thomas Dekker's The Shoemaker's Holiday is one of the most popular of Elizabethan plays, entertaining, racy and vivid in its characterisation. Revealing a vital portrait of Elizabethan London and the interaction of social classes within the city, its social commentary is on the whole optimistic, though darker tones are discernible. The play has the whole optimistic, though darker tones are discernible. The play has had a lively history of performance on both the professional and amateur stage; the roles of Simon and Madgy Eyre in particular have proved worthy vehicles for the talents of such performers as Sir Donald Wolfit and Dame Edith Evans, and a notable production was directed by Orson Wells.

The editors offer a study of the text; a historical and critical introduction, which includes a study of the play's relationship with contemporary life and drama and of its place in Dekker's work; a stage history' a detailed commentary and a reprint of source materials.

About this title

From the Publisher:

Written and first performed in 1599, The Shoemaker’s Holiday was the most popular non-Shakespearean comedy of its day--a hearty comedy of character and overflowing good humor, occasionally ribald, about the gentle craft of shoemaking.

About the Author:

R. L. Smallwood is Director of Courses at the Shakespeare Institute of the University of Birmingham. Stanley Wells is General Editor of the Oxford Shakespeare

About this edition

• Publisher: Manchester University Press
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0719030994
• ISBN 13: 9780719030994
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240
• Editor: Robert Smallwood, Stanley Wells