Showing results by author "Michela Bertazzo" in All Categories

Merlin. King Arthur. War betwixt British and Saxons. Uther Pendragon. Collapsing castle foundations, Magicians and spirits, and fighting dragons and a blazing comet. Good entertaining stuff. But is it Shakespeare?The 1662 first printed edition of this play says it was written by William Shakespeare and William Rowley. It doesn't appear that anyone any longer believes that Shakespeare was actually involved, and probably this is entirely Rowley - who co-authored plays with a fair number of other authors of the period. Rowley also acted in London troupes, including Shakespeare's The King's ...

The Changeling is a sensational 1622 tragicomedy by Thomas Middleton and William Rowley that comprises two intertwining plots. The first involves Beatrice-Joanna, daughter of the governor of Alicante, and her unruly passion for Alsemero, despite the fact that she is engaged to Alonzo de Piracquo. She enlists the aid of her father's servant De Flores to kill Alonzo so that she can marry Alsemero. However, she does not anticipate that De Flores, who is in love with her, will demand payment for the deed. The second plot is set in a madhouse, where the jealous old doctor Alibius is keeping his ...

John Webster's bloody Jacobean tragedy exposes the decadence of the Italian court. The virtuous Duchess of Malfi, a young widow, secretly marries her steward Antonio, and is subsequently persecuted by her brothers: the sexually obsessed and eventually mad Ferdinand, and the corrupt Cardinal. (Summary by Elizabeth Klett).Characters:Narrator/Stage Directions & Castruccio -- BellonaTimesDelio -- Andy MinterAntonio -- Martin GeesonBosola -- David NicolCardinal, 2nd Servant, 2nd Officer, Executioner -- jonesyFerdinand -- mbSilvio -- Lars RolanderRoderigo -- David MuncasterGrisolan -- Miriam Esther ...

This novel, which Shakespeare adapted in his pastoral comedy As You Like It, is the archetypal pastoral adventure. Two young persons of high birth, who have recently lost their fathers (one to death, one to banishment), fall in love but are separated almost at once and forced to flee to the Forest of Arden. There they meet again, but as Rosalynde is disguised for safety as a boy, named Ganymede, her lover Rosader does not recognize her. Once Rosader has confided his love to Ganymede, they play a game in which the "boy" poses as Rosalynde to give Rosader practice in wooing. As the comic ...

The Shoemaker's Holiday is an Elizabethan play written by Thomas Dekker. It was first performed in 1599 by the Admiral's Men. It falls into the sub-genre of city comedy (depicting ordinary London life).Aristocrat Rowland Lacy falls in love with middle class girl Rose Oateley, but Rose's father and Lacy's uncle refuse to approve the match because of the class difference and Rowland's spendthrift lifestyle. Rowland is told to redeem himself by joining the army fighting in France. To avoid going, he persuades someone else to take his place and disguises himself as a Dutch shoemaker, Hans. He ...

John Webster's The White Devil (1612) is a Jacobean revenge tragedy, replete with adultery, murder, ghosts, and violence. The Duke of Brachiano and Vittoria Corombona decide to kill their spouses, Isabella and Camillo, in order to be together, aided by the crafty and ambitious Flamineo, Vittoria's brother. Their actions prompt vows of revenge from Isabella's brother Francisco, the Duke of Florence, and Count Lodovico, who was secretly in love with her. The title refers to the early modern proverb that "the white devil is worse than the black," indicating the hypocrisy practiced by many of the ...

John Fletcher's comedy (probably written and performed around 1611) is a sequel to Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, in which, as the title suggests, the tamer will be tamed. Petruchio, the shrew-tamer, has been widowed, and marries a second wife, Maria, a "chaste witty lady." At the instigation of her cousin Bianca, and with the fellowship of her sister Livia, Maria decides to go on strike for equal rights, refusing to behave as a proper 17th century wife. Fletcher's play addresses the issue of men and women's roles within marriage, a controversial issue for his day. (Summary by ...

Albert, a handsome French pirate, and his crew get shipwrecked on a barren, rocky island after a severe storm. They encounter another pair of castaways who reveal a quite unusual secret- yet another strange group of people inhabit the island. Albert soon learns that these people are actually an Amazonian-like tribe of women, and proposes an alliance for the benefit of both parties. Love and hijinks ensue in a battle of the sexes.Notable for imitating many elements of William Shakespeare's The Tempest, the collaborators also consulted nonfictional traveler's accounts to bring their vision to ...

Tamburlaine the Great is the name of a play in two parts by Christopher Marlowe. It is loosely based on the life of the Central Asian emperor, Timur 'the lame'. Written in 1587 or 1588, the play is a milestone in Elizabethan public drama; it marks a turning away from the clumsy language and loose plotting of the earlier Tudor dramatists, and a new interest in fresh and vivid language, memorable action, and intellectual complexity. Along with Thomas Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy, it may be considered the first popular success of London's public stage.In Part 2, Tamburlaine grooms his sons to be ...

One of the most shocking plays produced in England during the reign of Charles I, 'Tis Pity She's A Whore chronicles the disastrous results of an incestuous affair between fatalistic Italian siblings, Giovanni and Annabella. As suitors vie for Annabella's hand, various webs of deception and revenge intertwine, culminating in a bloody finale. (Summary by Elizabeth Barr)CAST LISTBonaventura, a Friar/ Bergetto, Nephew to Donado: alanmapstoneA Cardinal, Nuncio to the Pope AND Banditti: Algy PugSoranzo, a Nobleman: tovarischFlorio, Citizen of Parma: Bob Neufeld Donado, Citizen of Parma: Arnie ...

Mother Elizabeth Sawyer is a poor, lonely, and unfairly ostracized old woman with nothing left to lose. Frank is a poor farmer who intends to marry his beloved Winnifred, who is pregnant with his child, but is pressured to marry Susan, the rich yeoman's daughter. Young Cuddy Banks is a clown who pines after a girl who doesn't love him. When Mother Sawyer turns to witchcraft after being unjustly accused of it, a talking devil-dog named Tom (performed by a human actor) comes to her aid, becoming her familiar and only friend. Though she intends to get her revenge, little does she know many of ...

The Broken Heart stands next to ‘Tis Pity She's a Whore as Ford's most popular drama. All is not right in Sparta because of, as is typical in this era of tragedies, the issue of marriage. In brief, Penthea wishes to marry Orgilus, but her brother Ithocles gets involved and bans them from doing so. He forces her to marry Bassanes, an abusive brute who happens to be wealthier than Orgilus. Ithocles then realises what he's done wrong and tries to get his friend Prophilus to marry Orgilus's sister Euphrania. Ithocles himself wants to marry the princess of Sparta, Calantha, who chooses him over ...

The Two Noble Kinsmen is a Jacobean tragicomedy co-written by William Shakespeare and John Fletcher, first published in 1634. Set in ancient Greece during a war between Athens and Thebes, the narrative follows the title characters, Palamon and Arcite, noble youths whose friendship is destroyed by their mutual love for the beautiful Emilia. The subplot deals with the love and eventual madness of the Gaoler's Daughter, who falls hopelessly in love with Palamon. The play is based on "The Knight's Tale" by Chaucer, but also has echoes of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, as two of the major...

Christopher "Kit" Marlowe (baptised 26 February 1564 – 30 May 1593) was an English dramatist, poet, and translator of the Elizabethan era. The foremost Elizabethan tragedian before William Shakespeare, he is known for his magnificent blank verse, his overreaching protagonists, and his own untimely death.The Jew of Malta (1589) is an original story of religious conflict, intrigue, and revenge, set against a backdrop of the struggle for supremacy between Spain and the Ottoman Empire in the Mediterranean. The Jew of Malta is considered to have been a major influence on William Shakespeare's The...

“Who ever lov’d, that lov’d not at first sight?”The wonder-decade of the English drama was suddenly interrupted in 1592, when serious plague broke out in London, forcing the closure of the theatres. Leading playwrights took to penning languorously erotic poetry to make ends meet: so we have Venus and Adonis, The Rape of Lucrece - and Marlowe’s blazing masterpiece, Hero and Leander.Marlowe’s poem became more notorious than either of Shakespeare’s, due not only to its homophile provocations but also to the scandal attaching to every aspect of Marlowe’s brief life, violently ended...

The Knight of the Burning Pestle is a play in five acts, first performed in 1607. It is the first whole parody (or pastiche) play in English. The play is a satire on chivalric romances in general, similar to Don Quixote. It breaks the fourth wall from its outset. As a play called "The London Merchant" is about to be performed, a Citizen and his Wife "in the audience" interrupt and demand that the players put on a play of their own choosing and suggest that their apprentice, Rafe, should have a part in the play as a knight errant. He refers to himself as the "Grocer Errant" and has a burning ...

Beaumont and Fletcher's The Maid's Tragedy (first published 1619) is a sensational Jacobean sex tragedy. When gentleman soldier Melantius returns to Rhodes, he finds his dear friend Amintor is recently married - but not to his troth-plight love Aspatia (the maid of the title). Instead, the King has arranged a match between Amintor and Melantius' sister, the beautiful Evadne. On his wedding night, Amintor finds that his new wife has married him under false pretenses - and this unleashes a torrent of dire consequences, sexual, emotional, and ultimately political. (Summary by Elizabeth Klett)Cast...

Le Morte d'Arthur (spelled Le Morte Darthur in the first printing and also in some modern editions, Middle French for la mort d'Arthur, "the death of Arthur") is Sir Thomas Malory's compilation of some French and English Arthurian romances. The book contains some of Malory's own original material (the Gareth story) and retells the older stories in light of Malory's own views and interpretations. First published in 1485 by William Caxton, Le Morte d'Arthur is perhaps the best-known work of English-language Arthurian literature today. Many modern Arthurian writers have used Malory as their ...

A Holy Day in 1495. Join the crowd streaming towards a temporary outdoor stage and be entertained (and maybe even instructed) by a performance of Everyman by the Guild of LibriVox Readers. Cast:(in order of appearance)Narrator - AnniseMessenger - ElliGod - Neeru IyerDeath - Denny SayersEveryman - Bob ShearmanFellowship - Tricia GCousin - Chris CaronKindred - David LawrenceGoods - Elizabeth KlettGood-Deeds - Marian MartinStrength - David ColeDiscretion - Laurie Anne WaldenFive-Wits - Barry EadsBeauty - Lucy PerryKnowledge - Arielle LipshawConfession - Ruth GoldingAngel - KalyndaDoctor - Cori ...

Sir Thomas More is a collaborative Elizabethan play by Anthony Munday and others depicting the life and death of Thomas More. It survives only in a single manuscript, now owned by the British Library. The manuscript is notable because three pages of it are considered to be in the hand of William Shakespeare and for the light it sheds on the collaborative nature of Elizabethan drama and the theatrical censorship of the era. The play dramatizes events in More's life, both real and legendary, in an episodic manner in 17 scenes, unified only by the rise and fall of More's fortunes. (Summary by ...