Lovers' Debates for the Stage - A Bilingual Edition

Witty and dynamic lovers’ dialogues for the stage. 

The actress and author Isabella Andreini won international renown playing the bold, versatile, and intellectual inamorata of the commedia dell’arte. After her death, her husband Francesco Andreini continued publishing her works, among them the thirty-one amorosi contrasti—or lovers’ debates— presented in this volume. Available in English for the first time, Lovers' Debates enables readers to envision the commedia dell’arte through the words of its most revered diva. Lovers flirt boldly, trade bawdy insults, exhibit their learning, and drive each other mad in stage dialogues that showcase Isabella’s skill in composition and drama. Sparkling with wit and bursting with dynamic energy, these brilliant lovers’ dialogues for the stage hold strong appeal not only for specialists in early modern literature and women’s studies, but for enthusiasts, scholars, and practitioners of classic and contemporary theatre. 
 

Isabella Andreini (1562-1604) was a renowned prima donna of the European stage. Also a poet, playwright, and author of philosophical letters, she was one of the most published Italian women writers in the seventeenth century. 

Pamela Allen Brown is professor of English at the University of Connecticut. She is the author of The Diva’s Gift to the Shakespearean Stage. 

Julie D. Campbell is professor of English and premodern global studies at Eastern Illinois University. She is the author of Literary Circles and Gender in Early Modern Europe.

Eric Nicholson is a scholar, actor, and director of early modern European drama at Syracuse University in Florence.