A Jovial Crew (Arden Early Modern Drama) - Softcover

Brome, Richard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1904271774 ISBN 13: 9781904271772

Publisher: The Arden Shakespeare, 2014

Synopsis

A Jovial Crew, or the Merry Beggars, is a comedy about four noble lovers who join the beggar community for a pastoral life of dance and song. Or is it? Whilst maintaining its unremitting good humour, A Jovial Crew shows that the literary depiction of beggar life, and real beggar life, are profoundly different. Daily aspects of life in the beggar world – poverty, dirt, licentiousness – come as a surprise to the well-born, who are ultimately led to question their own values.

The last production mounted before theatres were closed for the English Civil War, A Jovial Crew's exploration of class, commonwealth, kinship and kingship shows an intense engagement with contemporary politics. This edition, with dedicated sections on music and language in the play, argues that A Jovial Crew also offers a nostalgic farewell to English theatre. It explores Brome's attitude to performance and print, and follows A Jovial Crew from its first, Caroline staging, to its later manifestations as a Restoration comedy, an eighteenth-century opera, and a twentieth-century proto-Marxist tragicomedy.

About this title

Book Description:

A Jovial Crew is a seventeenth-century comedy which depicts the imbalance between the literary portrayal of beggar life and its reality. Including detailed notes and commentary, this playtext explores the stage history and considers the music and language in the play.

About the Author:

Richard Brome (c.1590-1653) was an English dramatist of the Caroline era who wrote for all the major acting companies and theatres. His career as a playwright was put on hold during one of the longest periods of theatre closure. When theatres reopened during the Restoration, a handful of Brome's plays were performed and republished, and the most successful of these was A Jovial Crew.
Tiffany Stern is Professor of Early Modern Drama and Fellow of University College at the University of Oxford, UK.

About this edition

• Publisher: The Arden Shakespeare
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1904271774
• ISBN 13: 9781904271772
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 328
• Editor: Stern Tiffany