Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-dfsvx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-30T02:45:34.840Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Evolution of the Form of Plays in English During the Renaissance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

T. H. Howard-Hill
T. H. Howard-Hill*
Affiliation:
University of South Carolina
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The modern arrangement of the texts of plays evolved from the confluence of two distinct methods of setting out plays for readers and theatrical use. The earliest, which I shall call the native tradition, had its seeds in the European liturgical drama and is most clearly manifested in the manuscripts of the early moral plays and of guild plays associated with Corpus Christi from the fourteenth century to the cessation of the performances late in the sixteenth century. The second is the classical method, exemplified by the early printings of the plays of Terence, Plautus, and Seneca from 1470 onwards and adopted by the university educated writers of secular plays in the sixteenth century.

Type
Studies
Information
Renaissance Quarterly , Volume 43 , Issue 1 , Spring 1990 , pp. 112 - 145
Copyright
Copyright © Renaissance Society of America 1990

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Baker, Donald C , and Murphy, J. L.. The Digby Plays: Facsimiles of the Plays in Bodley MSS Digby 133 and e Museo 160. Leeds Texts and Monographs, Medieval Drama Facsimiles, 3. Leeds, 1976.Google Scholar
Baker, Donald C and Hall, Louis B.. The Late Medieval Religious Plays of Bodleian MSS Digby 133 andeMuseo 160. EETS 283. Oxford, 1982.Google Scholar
Baker, Donald C “The Late Medieval Plays of MS Digby 133: Scribes, Dates, and Early History .” Research Opportunities in Renaissance Drama 10 (1967):153-66.Google Scholar
Baldwin, T. W. Shakspere's Five-Act Structure: Shakspere's Early Plays on the Background of Renaissance Theories of Five-Act Structure from 1470. Urbana, 1947.Google Scholar
Baldwin, T. W. On Act and Scene Division in the Shakspere First Folio. Carbondale, 1965.Google Scholar
Beadle, Richard, and Meredith, Peter, eds. The York Plays: A Facsimile of British Library MS Additional 35290. Leeds Texts and Monographs, Medieval Drama Facsimiles, 7. Leeds, 1983.Google Scholar
Bevington, David, ed. The Macro Plays: The Castle of Perseverance; Wisdom; Mankind. Folger Facsimiles Manuscript ser. 1. New York and Washington, D.C., 1972.Google Scholar
Bolgar, R. R. The Classical Heritage and its Beneficiaries. London, 1954.Google Scholar
Carter, Harry. A View of Early Typography up to About 1600. Oxford, 1969.Google Scholar
Cawley, A.C. The Wakefield Pageants in the Towneley Cycle. Old and Middle English Texts. Manchester, 1958.Google Scholar
Chambers, E. K. The Mediaeval Stage, 2. Oxford, 1903.Google Scholar
Clopper, L. M. “The History and Development of the Chester Cycle.” Modern Philology 75 (1978):219-46.Google Scholar
Craig, Hardin, ed. Two Coventry Corpus Christi Plays. EETS Extra ser. 87. London, 1957.Google Scholar
Cupaiuolo, G. Bibliografia terenziana. Studi e testi dell'antichita, 16. Naples, 1984.Google Scholar
Davis, Norman, ed. Non-cycle Plays and the Winchester Dialogues: Facsimiles of Plays and Fragments. Leeds Texts and Monographs, Medieval Drama Facsimiles, 5. Leeds, 1979.Google Scholar
Davis, Norman. Non-Cycle Plays and Fragments. EETS Supplementary ser. 1. London, 1970.Google Scholar
Dickins, B., and Wilson, R. M.. Middle Early English Texts. Cambridge, 1951.Google Scholar
Eccles, Mark, ed. The Macro Plays. EETS 262. London, 1969.Google Scholar
Fuller, John B., ed. Hilarii Versus et Ludi. New York, 1929.Google Scholar
Greg, W. W. “The Coming of Antichrist: - Relation of the Manuscripts of the Chester Cycle.” In idem, Bibliographical and Textual Problems of the English Miracle Plays, 32–69. London, 1914.Google Scholar
Greg, W. W.. A Bibliography of the English Printed Drama to the Restoration, 4. London, 1959; rpt. 1970.Google Scholar
Goldschmidt, E. P. The Printed Book of the Renaissance. Cambridge, 1950.Google Scholar
Harris, Markham, trans. The Cornish Ordinalia: A Medieval Dramatic Trilogy. Washington, D.C., 1969. Google Scholar
Hirsch, Rudolf. “Classics in the Vulgar Tongues Printed During the Initial Fifty Years.” Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America 81 (1987):249–337.Google Scholar
Lawton, H. W. Terence en France au XVIe Siècle: Editions et traductions. Contribution à I'histoire de l'humanisme en France. Paris, 1926; rpt. Geneva, 1970.Google Scholar
Lumiansky, R. M., and Mills, David, eds. The Chester Mystery Cycle. EETS Supplementary ser. 3, 9. London, 1974-86.Google Scholar
Lumiansky, R. M.. The Chester Mystery Cycle: A Facsimile of MS Bodley 115. Leeds Texts and Monographs, Medieval Drama Facsimiles, 1. Leeds, 1973.Google Scholar
Lumiansky, R. M.. The Chester Mystery Cycle: Essays and Documents. Chapel Hill, 1983.Google Scholar
Mills, David. “The Stage Directions in the Manuscripts of the Chester Mystery Cycle. ” Medieval English Theatré (1981):45–51.Google Scholar
Mish, Charles C. “Black Letter as a Social Discriminant in the Seventeenth Century.“ PMLA 68 (1953):627-30.Google Scholar
Neuss, Paula, ed. The Creadon of the World: A Critical Edition and Translation. New York, 1983.Google Scholar
Norris, Edwin, ed. The Ancient Comish Drama. Oxford, 1859.Google Scholar
Pafford, J. H. P., and Greg, W. W., eds. King Johan. Oxford, 1931.Google Scholar
Parkes, M. B. English Cursive Book Hands, 1250-1500. Oxford Palaeographical Handbooks. Oxford, 1969.Google Scholar
Salter, F. M. The Trial and Flagellation, With Other Studies. Chester Play Studies. Oxford, 1935.Google Scholar
Sandys, J. E. A History of Classical Scholarship, 2. Cambridge, 1908.Google Scholar
Stevens, Martin. “The Manuscript of the Towneley Plays.” Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America 67 (1973):231-44.Google Scholar
Wilson, F. P. The English Drama, 1485- 1585, ed. G. K. Hunter. Oxford History of English Drama, 4, pt. 1. Oxford, 1969.Google Scholar