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History (theatrical Genre)
History is one of the three main genres in Western theatre alongside tragedy and comedy, although it originated, in its modern form, thousands of years later than the other primary genres. For this reason, it is often treated as a subset of tragedy. A play in this genre is known as a history play and is based on a historical narrative, often set in the medieval or early modern past. History emerged as a distinct genre from tragedy in Renaissance England. The best known examples of the genre are the history plays written by William Shakespeare, whose plays still serve to define the genre. History plays also appear elsewhere in Western literature, such as Thomas Heywood's ''Edward IV'', Schiller's '' Mary Stuart'' or the Dutch national poet Joost van den Vondel's play '' Gijsbrecht van Aemstel''. Precursors Plays with some connection to historic narratives date to the beginnings of Athenian theatre. For one, although many early Greek plays covered subjects that modern audience ...
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Falstaff Plays The King
Sir John Falstaff is a fictional character who appears in three plays by William Shakespeare and is eulogised in a fourth. His significance as a fully developed character is primarily formed in the plays ''Henry IV, Part 1'' and '' Part 2'', where he is a companion to Prince Hal, the future King Henry V of England. Falstaff is also featured as the buffoonish suitor of two married women in ''The Merry Wives of Windsor''. Though primarily a comic figure, he embodies a depth common to Shakespeare's major characters. A fat, vain, and boastful knight, he spends most of his time drinking at the Boar's Head Inn with petty criminals, living on stolen or borrowed money. Falstaff leads the apparently wayward Prince Hal into trouble, and is repudiated when Hal becomes king. Falstaff has appeared in other works, including operas by Giuseppe Verdi, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Otto Nicolai, a "symphonic study" by Edward Elgar, and in Orson Welles's 1966 film ''Chimes at Midnight''. The o ...
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Edward Hall
Edward Hall ( – ) was an English lawyer and historian, best known for his #Chronicle, ''The Union of the Two Noble and Illustre Families of Lancastre and Yorke''—commonly known as ''Hall's Chronicle''—first published in 1548. He was also several times a Member of Parliament, member of the Parliament of England. Family Edward Hall, born in 1497, was the son of John Hall (died 22 February 1528) of Northall in Kynnersley, Shropshire, a London Worshipful Company of Grocers, grocer and Merchants of the Staple, Merchant of the Staple who resided in the parish of St Mildred, Poultry, St Mildred in the Poultry.Catherine Gedding (died 1557), A Who’s Who of Tudor ...
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Shakespearean Comedies
In the First Folio, the plays of William Shakespeare were grouped into three categories: comedies, histories, and tragedies; and modern scholars recognise a fourth category, ''romance'', to describe the specific types of comedy that appear in Shakespeare's later works. Plays This alphabetical list includes everything listed as a comedy in the First Folio of 1623, in addition to the two quarto plays (''The Two Noble Kinsmen'' and ''Pericles, Prince of Tyre'') which are not included in the Folio but generally recognised to be Shakespeare's Easton own. Plays marked with an asterisk (*) are now commonly referred to as the '' romances''. Plays marked with two asterisks (**) are sometimes referred to as the '' problem plays''. * '' All's Well That Ends Well**'' * '' As You Like It'' * '' The Comedy of Errors'' * '' Love's Labour's Lost'' * ''Measure for Measure**'' * '' The Merchant of Venice**'' * '' The Merry Wives of Windsor'' * '' A Midsummer Night's Dream'' * '' Much Ado About ...
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First Folio
''Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies'' is a collection of plays by William Shakespeare, commonly referred to by modern scholars as the First Folio, published in 1623, about seven years after Shakespeare's death. It is considered one of the most influential books ever published. Printed in Folio (printing), folio format and containing 36 of Shakespeare's plays#Canonical plays, Shakespeare's plays, it was prepared by Shakespeare's colleagues John Heminges and Henry Condell. It was dedication (publishing), dedicated to the "incomparable pair of brethren" William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke, and his brother Philip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke, Philip Herbert, Earl of Montgomery (later 4th Earl of Pembroke). Although 19 of Shakespeare's plays had been published in quarto before 1623, the First Folio is arguably the only reliable text for about 20 of the plays, and a valuable source text for many of those previously published. Eighteen of the plays in the Fir ...
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Sir Thomas More (play)
''Sir Thomas More'' is an Elizabethan play and a dramatic biography based on events in the life of the Catholic martyr Thomas More, who rose to become the Lord Chancellor of England during the reign of Henry VIII. The play is considered to be written by Anthony Munday and Henry Chettle and revised by several writers. The manuscript is particularly notable for a three-page handwritten revision now widely attributed to William Shakespeare. Content This play is not a biography; it is a drama that deals with certain events in More's life. Other significant facts are not described: There is no mention of his literary career, his book ''Utopia'', or the dispute between Henry VIII and the Pope in Rome. Also the life of More is at times expanded beyond what actually occurred and beyond the sources that were used, in order to suit the drama. What the play is about has been debated, but the issues revolve around obedience to the crown and rule of law, particularly when a populace beco ...
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Thomas Of Woodstock (play)
''Thomas of Woodstock'' and ''Richard the Second Part One'' are two names for an untitled, anonymous and apparently incomplete manuscript of an Elizabethan play depicting events in the reign of King Richard II. Attributions of the play to William Shakespeare have been nearly universally rejected, and it does not appear in major editions of the Shakespeare apocrypha. The play has been often cited as a possible influence on Shakespeare's ''Richard II'', as well as '' Henry IV, Parts 1'' and '' 2'', but new dating of the text brings that relationship into question. Characters Dramatis Personae after Corbin and Sedge (2002) * Thomas of Woodstock, 1st Duke of Gloucester – uncle to the king and Lord Protector * John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster –uncle to the king * Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York – uncle to the king * Richard FitzAlan, 11th Earl of Arundel, Lord Admiral of England * Earl of Surrey (possibly Thomas Holland, 1st Duke of Surrey) * Sir Thomas Cheney, s ...
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Edward III (play)
''The Raigne of King Edward the Third'', often shortened to ''Edward III'', is an Elizabethan play printed anonymously in 1596, and possibly at least partly written by William Shakespeare. It began to be included in publications of the complete works of Shakespeare only in the late 1990s. Scholars who have supported this attribution include Jonathan Bate, Edward Capell, Eliot Slater, Eric Sams, Giorgio MelchioriMelchiori, Giorgio, ed. ''The New Cambridge Shakespeare: King Edward III'', 1998, p. 2. and Brian Vickers. The play's co-author remains the subject of debate: suggestions have included Thomas Kyd, Christopher Marlowe, Michael Drayton, Thomas Nashe and George Peele. The play contains several gibes at Scotland and the Scottish people, which has led some critics to suggest that it incited George Nicholson, Queen Elizabeth's agent in Edinburgh, to protest against the portrayal of Scots on the London stage in a 1598 letter to William Cecil, Lord Burghley. This could ex ...
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Perkin Warbeck (play)
''Perkin Warbeck'' is a Caroline era history play by John Ford regarding pretender to the throne Perkin Warbeck. It is generally ranked as one of Ford's three masterpieces, along with '''Tis Pity She's a Whore'' and ''The Broken Heart''. T. S. Eliot went so far as to call ''Perkin Warbeck'' "unquestionably Ford's highest achievement...one of the very best historical plays outside of the works of Shakespeare in the whole of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama." Date, performance, publication The play's date of authorship is uncertain, though it is widely thought to have been written in the 1629–34 period. It was first published in 1634, as ''The Chronicle History of Perkin Warbeck. A Strange Truth.'' The quarto was issued by the bookseller Hugh Beeston, with a dedication by Ford to William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Newcastle. The title page bears Ford's anagrammatic motto, "Fide Honor," and states that the play was performed "(some-times)" by Queen Henrietta's Men at the Phoenix or Cock ...
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John Ford (dramatist)
John Ford (1586) was an English playwright and poet of the Literature in English#Jacobean literature, Jacobean and Literature in English#Caroline and Cromwellian literature, Caroline eras born in Ilsington in Devon, England. His plays deal mainly with the conflict between passion and conscience. Although remembered primarily as a playwright, he also wrote a number of poems on themes of love and morality. Origins John Ford was baptism, baptised 17 April 1586 at Ilsington Church, Devon. He was the second son of Thomas Ford (1556–1610) of Bagtor in the parish of Ilsington, and his wife Elizabeth Popham (died 1629) of the John Popham (judge), Popham family of Huntworth in Somerset. Her monument exists in Ilsington Church. Thomas Ford's grandfather was John Ford (died 1538) of Ashburton, Devon, Ashburton (the son and heir of William Ford of Chagford) who purchased the estate of Bagtor in the parish of Ilsington, which his male heirs successively made their seat. The Elizabethan man ...
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Edward II (play)
''The Troublesome Reign and Lamentable Death of Edward the Second, King of England, with the Tragical Fall of Proud Mortimer'', known as ''Edward II'', is a Renaissance or early modern period play written by Christopher Marlowe. It is one of the earliest English history plays, and focuses on the relationship between King Edward II of England and Piers Gaveston, 1st Earl of Cornwall, Piers Gaveston, and Edward's murder on the orders of Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March, Roger Mortimer. Marlowe found most of his material for this play in the third volume of Raphael Holinshed's Holinshed's Chronicles, ''Chronicles'' (1587). Frederick S. Boas believes that "out of all the rich material provided by Holinshed" Marlowe was drawn to "the comparatively unattractive reign of Edward II" due to the relationship between the King and Gaveston. Boas elaborates, "Homosexual affection ... has (as has been seen) a special attraction for Marlowe. Jove and Ganymede in ''Dido, Queen of Carthage (pla ...
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