Work and Play on the Shakespearean Stage

Tom Rutter

ISBN 10: 0521884861 / ISBN 13: 9780521884860

Published by Cambridge University Press, 2008

About this Item

Druck auf Anfrage Neuware - Printed after ordering - Time and again, early modern plays show people at work: shoemaking, grave-digging, and professional acting are just some of the forms of labour that theatregoers could have seen depicted on stage in 1599 and 1600. Tom Rutter demonstrates how such representations were shaped by the theatre's own problematic relationship with work: actors earned their living through playing, a practice that many considered idle and illegitimate, while plays were criticised for enticing servants and apprentices from their labour. As a result, the drama of Shakespeare's time became the focal point of wider debates over what counted as work, who should have to do it, and how it should be valued. This book describes changing beliefs about work in the sixteenth century, and shows how different ways of conceptualising the work of the governing class inform Shakespeare's histories. It identifies important contrasts between plays written for the adult and child repertories.

Seller Inventory # 9780521884860

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Work and Play on the Shakespearean Stage
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication Date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0521884861
• ISBN 13: 9780521884860
• Binding: Buch
• Condition: Neu
• Dimensions: 235W x 157H x 16D millimeters 235 millimeters width by 157 millimeters height by 16 millimeters depth
• Weight: 471 grams

About this title

Synopsis

Time and again, early modern plays show people at work: shoemaking, grave-digging, and professional acting are just some of the forms of labour that theatregoers could have seen depicted on stage in 1599 and 1600. Tom Rutter demonstrates how such representations were shaped by the theatre's own problematic relationship with work: actors earned their living through playing, a practice that many considered idle and illegitimate, while plays were criticised for enticing servants and apprentices from their labour. As a result, the drama of Shakespeare's time became the focal point of wider debates over what counted as work, who should have to do it, and how it should be valued. This book describes changing beliefs about work in the sixteenth century, and shows how different ways of conceptualising the work of the governing class inform Shakespeare's histories. It identifies important contrasts between plays written for the adult and child repertories.

Book Description

Focusing on plays by Shakespeare, Jonson, Dekker, Heywood, and others, this book examines the way work was depicted on the English stage between 1590 and 1611. It describes changing beliefs about work in the sixteenth century, and identifies important contrasts between plays written for the adult and child repertories.