Drama in English to 1900

This a
selective survey of the best and most interesting drama in English, from
Medieval times to the end of the nineteenth century. It will include both
canonical plays, long admired by critics and often staged, and some that are
now obscure and neglected. These allow us to consider issues and contexts of
the different eras in which these English plays were written and produced. The
course will consider both tragic and comic plays, mostly those related to the
London stage. In particular, the course will consider some of the earliest
plays in English, some major examples of Elizabethean and Jacobean drama,
including revenge tragedy and romance. It will sample some examples of
satirical and ribald Restoration comedies, some middle-class and sentimental
plays from the eighteenth century, and Shelly’s Aeschylean drama, Prometheus
Unbound

from the Romantic period. It concludes with some brilliant plays by
Oscar Wilde. The class requires some in-class readings and reports, two short
papers, a midterm and a final exam.

 

Required
Texts:

 

 

The Genius
of the Early English Theater,
 ISBN-13: 978-0452011649 [Paperback]

 

The
Beggar’s Opera and Other Eighteenth-Century Plays
(Everyman’s Library)

ISBN-13: 978-0460873147 [Paperback]

 

Dryden, John,
Marriage A La Mode
(New Mermaids),  ISBN-13:
978-0713666663 ) [Paperback]

 

Behn, Aphra, The
Rover and Other Plays
(Oxford World’s Classics), ISBN-13:
978-0199540204 [Paperback]

 

Wilde, Oscar,
The Importance of Being Earnest and Other Plays: Lady Windermere’s Fan;
Salome; A Woman of No Importance; An Ideal Husband; The Importance of Being
Earnest
(Oxford World’s Classics),  ISBN-13: 978-0199535972
[Paperback]

 

Four
Revenge Tragedies: (The Spanish Tragedy, The Revenger’s Tragedy, The Revenge of
Bussy D’Ambois, and The Atheist’s Tragedy
(Oxford World’s Classics)  ISBN-13:
978-0199540532 [Paperback]

 

Three
Restoration Comedies: The Man of Mode; The Country Wife; Love for love
(Penguin Classics), ISBN-13:
978-0140430271 [Paperback]

 

 

Aeschylus and
Percy Bysshe Shelley, Prometheus Bound, Prometheus Unbound, ISBN-13: 978-0943742199 [Paperback]