Shakespeare And ComedyBloomsbury Academic, 2005 M09 26 - 288 pages Comedy was at the centre of a critical storm that raged throughout the early modern period. Shakespeare's plays made capital of this controversy. In them he deliberately invokes the case against comedy made by the Elizabethan theatre haters. They are filled with jokes that go too far, laughter that hurts its victims, wordplay that turns to swordplay and aggressive acts of comic revenge. In a detailed study of seventeen plays, tragedies and histories as well as comedies, Maslen contends that Shakespeare's use of the comic mode is always calculatedly unsettling, and that this is part of what makes it pleasurable. |
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actors Angelo anti-theatrical Antonio Arden audience Bassanio Beatrice Benedick Berowne Cesario Christian claim Claudio clown Comedy of Errors comedy's comic court courtiers death delight disguise Don John Don Pedro drama Dromio Duke Duke's early modern Elizabethan England English Ephesian Ephesus fantasies finds fool Friar Ganymede gender genre Gentlemen of Verona Gosson Hercules Hero humour Illyria imagine Isabella jest-books jests John Lyly joke Katherina labour laughter Leonato light London Love's Labour's Lost lovers Lucio male Malvolio marriage masculinity master means Measure for Measure Merchant of Venice merry Olivia Orlando Orsino Oxford performance play's players Portia Prince Proteus Puttenham Renaissance rhetorical Romeo and Juliet Rosalind says scene seems servant sexual Shakespeare's Shakespeare's plays Shrew Shylock Silvia Sir Toby social speech stage Stephen Gosson Tarlton's tells theatre theatre-haters theatrical Theseus things thou tragedy Twelfth Night Valentine verbal Viola violence woman women words