The Shoemaker's Holiday (New Mermaids) - Softcover

Dekker, Thomas; Parr, Anthony

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0713666609 ISBN 13: 9780713666601

Publisher: Methuen Drama, 2002

Synopsis

The rise of Simon Eyre, shoemaker, to the office of Lord Mayor provided
Dekker with the material for one of the most festive of London
comedies. This is no urban satire in the Jonsonian vein, but a
cheerfully idealistic - yet by no means na?ve - celebration of civic
social ethos and the culture of the Elizabethan 'middling sort'. Set
largely in and around Eyre's workshop, the play provides a happy ending
for the earl's son who disguises himself as a Dutch artisan to woo
Eyre's daughter; the journeyman who comes home crippled after the wars
in France is reunited with his destitute wife; and Eyre himself - the
handicraftsman whose 'heart is without craft' - who invites King Henry
V to join in the artisans' Shrove Tuesday revelry. This edition
provides maps of the Rose theatre, in which the play was first staged
in 1599, and of Elizabethan London, the immediate backdrop of the
action.

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

Bernard Sahlins is co-editor, with Nicholas Rudall, of the Plays for Performance series. He has also written Days and Nights at The Second City.
The Plays for Performance series is edited by Nicholas Rudall, former artistic director of the Court Theatre at the University of Chicago where he is professor of classics, and Bernard Sahlins, founder and director of the Second City. They both live in Chicago, Illinois.

Edition details

• Publisher: Methuen Drama
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0713666609
• ISBN 13: 9780713666601
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 144