The School of Abuse: Containing a Pleasant Invective Against Poets, Players, Jesters, &C (Classic Reprint) - Hardcover
Synopsis
Expose the early war over theater and its fiercest critics, and see how one man shaped a century of debate.
This illuminating edition surveys Stephen Gosson’s The School of Abuse and the lively clash it sparked among poets, players, and Puritans in Elizabethan England. Drawing on contemporaries and later references, it places the tract in a broader struggle over stage games, morality, and public taste.
The pages trace Gosson’s personal journey from actor and playwright to outspoken critic, and show how his work intersected with other famous voices of the era. You’ll follow the back-and-forth between Gosson and his opponents, the responses they provoked, and how these exchanges helped define early defenses of drama and music. The collection also sheds light on related works and the evolving public conversation that shaped English theater.- Context for The School of Abuse, including its aims and tone.
- Connections to peers like Lodge, Stubbes, Whetstone, and Rainolds in the heated debates on stage plays.
- A look at how later writers engaged with Gosson’s arguments and the theater world they inhabited.
- Insights into the broader cultural and religious currents driving anti-theatrical criticism in the period.
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