Bit Parts in Shakespeare's Plays
Bit Parts in Shakespeare's Plays
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Molly Mahood has written a wholly original survey of the small supporting roles which abound in Shakespeare's plays. The practice of doubling enabled Elizabethan dramatists to surround their principal characters with a host of lesser Lords, Soldiers, Messengers and Servants. Professor Mahood explores the different purposes served by such minimal characters, from clearing the stage to epitomising the overall effect of a comedy or tragedy. Each of the subsequent chapters is devoted to the entire corpus of minimal roles in a single play, ranging from the early Richard III to The Tempest.
- This is a new subject by a renowned, senior Shakespeare scholar
- Some professional interest in the theatre world. Should get reviewed, for example Sunday papers
- Paperback candidate
Reviews & endorsements
'This is a wittily written, elegantly thought out, wonderfully original work that abounds in new ideas. It will be rewarding to all readers and actors of Shakespeare, first for its multitude of details about bit parts, and secondly for the rich possibilities for performance that the author uncovers.' Andrew Gurr
Product details
January 1993Hardback
9780521416122
262 pages
237 × 157 × 21 mm
0.487kg
Unavailable - out of print April 1999
Table of Contents
- 1. Entities and nonentities
- 2. Transposer
- 3. Supporters
- 4. Stress and counterstress
- 5. Shadow and substance in Richard the Third
- 6. Friends of Brutus
- 7. Measure for Measure, or the Way of the World
- 8. Service and servility in King Lear
- 9. The varying tide in Antony and Cleopatra
- 10. The Tempest from the forecastle
- Notes
- Index of characters
- General index.
