Four Jacobean Sex Tragedies: William Barksted and Lewis Machin: The Insatiate Countess; Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher: The Maid's Tragedy; Tho

by William Barksted, Francis Beaumont, Thomas Middleton, et al.

Book Overview

Jacobean Tragedy explores the tensions between the disruptive energies of sex and seventeenth century social, cultural and political values with an exceptional frankness, and the plays collected in this volume demonstrate the genre at its most sinister and explicit. The plays included are The Insatiate Countess, The Maid's Tragedy, The Maiden's Tragedy, and The Tragedy of Valentinian.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0192823205
• ISBN13: 9780192823205
• Release Date: August 1998
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 480 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 7.5" x 5.0"

Customer Reviews

David Lynch, move on over!

Oh my goodness! What a wonderful gruesome collection of early 17th century plays! Jacobean drama is conventionally characterized as "decadent," and this anthology seems to justify the appellation. How about nymphomania, necrophilia, incest, murder, poison, blackmail, adultery, and rape? Although the subject matter is sensational, these are also serious psychological studies, well-written and well-plotted dramas. These fascinating plays are not widely available, but they should be. Anybody interested in 17th century English drama and culture will enjoy these plays. The plays are especially provocative in their treatment of monarchy; the royal court is typically portrayed as deeply corrupted, tyrannous, and decadent. Amazingly, for an age of royal absolutism, these plays seem to justify regicide. David Lynch, more over, here come the Jacobean sex tragedies. I agree with the comments of the previous reviewer that the editing leaves much to be desired. The use of endnotes instead of footnotes is horribly distracting. I finally just stopped using the notes. Most of the notes are unnecessary and add little to the understanding of the text. If you're familiar with reading Shakespeare, you can probably comprehend these texts without looking at the endnotes.