The Duchess Of Malfi - Softcover

Webster, John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1975766776 ISBN 13: 9781975766771

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2017

Synopsis

The Duchess was Giovanna d'Aragona, Duchess of Amalfi, whose father, Enrico d'Aragona, Marquis of Gerace, was an illegitimate son of Ferdinand I of Naples. As in the play, she secretly married Antonio Beccadelli di Bologna after the death of her first husband Alfonso I Piccolomini, Duke of Amalfi. The play begins as a love story, with a Duchess who marries beneath her class, and ends as a nightmarish tragedy as her two brothers exact their revenge, destroying themselves in the process. Jacobean drama continued the trend of stage violence and horror set by Elizabethan tragedy, under the influence of Seneca. The complexity of some of its characters, particularly Bosola and the Duchess, plus Webster's poetic language, ensure the play is often considered among the greatest tragedies of English renaissance drama.

About this title

About the Author

Dr John Webster is Emeritus Professor in Animal Husbandry at the University of Bristol, UK. Amongst his many achievements, Professor Webster was recently awarded an honorary degree by the Royal Veterinary College for his research in animal science, as well as the Universities Federation for Animal Welfare (UFAW) Medal for Outstanding Contributions to Animal Welfare. He established the Animal Welfare and Behaviour Group at the University of Bristol, one of the largest and most highly-regarded of its kind in the world, and was a founder member of the Farm Animal Welfare Council which pioneered the Five Freedoms for farm animals.

Review

More widely studied and more frequently performed than ever before, John Webster's The Duchesss of Malfi is here presented in an accessible and thoroughly up-to-date edition. Based on the often reprinted Revels Plays Edition of 1964, the notes have been augmented to cast further light on Webster's amazing dialogue and on the stage action which it implies. An entirely new introduction sets the tragedy in the context of pre-Civil War England and gives a revealing view of its themes, action and visual imagery. From its well-documented early performances to the two productions seen in the West End of London in the 1995-96 season, a stage history gives an account of the play in performance. Students, actors, directors and theatre-goers will find here a reappraisal of Webster's artistry in the tragedy which stands in the very first rank of plays from perhaps the greatest age of English theatre, and reasons why it has lived on stage with renewed force in the last decades of the twentieth century.

Edition details

• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1975766776
• ISBN 13: 9781975766771
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 152
• Editor: Lander Olivia