|
The team working on the Restoration Comedy Project has
so far edited four plays: Thomas Shadwell's The
Virtuoso and Epsom Wells,
Joseph Arrowsmith's The Reformation,
and the anonymous The Woman Turned
Bully. Each edition is preceded by a detailed introduction
which includes discussion of such aspects as date and authorship,
literary and dramatic context, main subject, stage history, language,
style and text. Besides, each book provides its own critical approach
to the play as a guide for contemporary readers. In all three cases the
text is fully annotated including footnotes relating to text, language,
theatre and contemporary historical events. The texts have been chosen
not only for their literary and dramatic relevance but also considering
their availability in the bookshops; as a matter of fact the latest
edition of The Virtuoso had been published in 1966, that of Epsom
Wells in 1930, and The Reformation and The Woman Turned Bully had never
been published in a modern critical edition. The team is at present
engaged in the edition of a new comedy that should come out in print in
the near future.
The Woman Turned Bully, anonymous.
Eds. María José Mora, Manuel J. Gómez-Lara,
Rafael Portillo y Juan A. Prieto-Pablos. Barcelona: Publicacions i
Edicions Universitat de Barcelona, 2007. 211 pages. ISBN 84-475-3208-7.
 |
Often attributed to Aphra
Behn, The Woman Turned Bully
presents the London adventures of a young girl who flees her home in
the country, disguised as a man, to escape an arranged marriage. As she
seeks inspiration in the theatre to personate the gallant, the play
offers an amusing satire of the extravagances of the rake-hero of
Restoration comedy. A remarkable gallery of secondary characters
includes a ridiculous old lawyer and his clerk, a strong-willed country
widow who drinks and smokes tobacco, and an amorous old maid. Its
well-structured plot, lively dialogues and comic situations recommend
it as an entertaining play for today's readers and prospective
audiences.
This is the first edition of the play since its original publication in
1675. The editors offer a modernised text, with abundant critical notes
and an introduction which places it in its literary and theatrical
context.
For more information on this edition of The
Woman Turned Bully, go to: http://www.edicionsub.com/
|
The Reformation, by Joseph Arrowsmith. Eds. Juan
A. Prieto-Pablos, María José Mora, Manuel J.
Gómez-Lara y Rafael Portillo. Barcelona: Edicions Universitat de
Barcelona, 2003. 201 pages. ISBN 84-8338-381-0.
 |
The Reformation (1673), attributed to
Joseph Arrowsmith, is an amusing satire on the libertine manners of the
Stuart court. A group of young men in Venice set up a society to reform
sexual mores "a la mode d'Angleterre" and liberate women from the
tyranny of fathers and husbands. Described by a contemporary critic as
"the Reverse to the Laws of Morality and Virtue", the play was quickly
withdrawn from the stage.
The comedy also offers a burlesque portrait of
Poet Laureate John Dryden, poking fun at his critical opinions and
dramatic production. This is the first critical edition of the play.
The editors place it in its social and cultural context and present a
fully annotated text, which enables today's reader to enjoy and
understand Arrowsmith's lively picture of Restoration life.
For more information on this edition of The
Reformation, go to: http://www.edicionsub.com/
|
Thomas
Shadwell's Epsom Wells. Eds. Juan A. Prieto-Pablos,
María José Mora, Manuel J. Gómez-Lara y
Rafael Portillo. Sevilla: Secretariado de Publicaciones Universidad de
Sevilla, 2000. lxx+177 pages. ISBN 84-472-0590-8.
 |
Thomas Shadwell's Epsom Wells (1672) is an
amusing portrayal of licentiousness and intrigue among the London
citizenry and gentry who frequented the fashionable spa at Epsom,
Surrey. This new critical edition, the first since the 1930s, is fully
annotated to enable today's reader to enjoy and understand the text to
the full.
Making use of the most recent scholarship, the
editors put the play in its social and cultural contexts. They cite
contemporary accounts of the purgative and supposed procreative powers
of Epsom waters -an ideal source for comedy. They also discuss Shadwell
within the context of the Restoration theatre by examining his use of
wit and repartee, and how he allied himself with the new comedy of
manners, rejecting the Jonsonian tradition of humours.
|
Thomas Shadwell's The
Virtuoso. Eds. Juan A. Prieto-Pablos, María José
Mora, Manuel J. Gómez-Lara y Rafael Portillo. Sevilla:
Secretariado de Publicaciones Universidad de Sevilla, 1997. xlvii+157
pages. ISBN 84-472-0371-9.
 |
Now regarded as one of the most amusing plays of
the Restoration, Thomas Shadwell's The Virtuoso (1676) is an
entertaining satire on scientific pretensions and sexual mores. This
new critical edition, the first in three decades, is fully annotated to
enable today's reader to enjoy and understand the text to the full. The
introduction presents a picture of the author and his time as well as
the play in the context of the Restoration stage and of later
productions.
Making use of the most recent scholarship, the
editors also focus on Thomas Shadwell as the direct inheritor of
the Jonsonian comedy of humours and his critical attitude towards the
new comedy of manners. They also discuss his long standing political
and literary feud with John Dryden, who had satirised him mercilessly
but who was eventually ousted by Shadwell as Poet Laureate.
|
For more information on these editions of The
Virtuoso and Epsom Wells, go to: http://publius.cica.es/
|
