Description
Harper & Brothers Publishers, New York and London. Published date: 1923. Hardcover, 160 pp; 21 cm. First edition.
Rare, out-of-print & unusual books · Since 1997
110
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Catalog notes
Condition & notes
In acceptable condition / no dust jacket. Pale blue paper-covered boards with printed title label on front and tan cloth spine with printed paper spine label. Covers show moderate to heavy moisture staining and discoloration along the lower edges of boards and spine with surface wear and toning; spine cloth darkened from water exposure; front paste-down and front free end paper split along hinge; binding firm but slightly shaken; previous owner's circular blind stamp on front endpaper; small ink inscriptions on front endpapers; interior pages lightly toned with occasional tide marks along lower margins but text remains unmarked and readable. Examines the influence of classical, Italian, French, and Spanish literature on English drama during the Elizabethan and early Stuart periods. Discusses playwrights including Ben Jonson, William Shakespeare, and John Fletcher and traces the transmission of continental literary forms and themes into the English theatrical tradition. [From Preface] It is the general purpose of this book to trace the chief foreign influences that affected the drama in England from its more regular beginnings in the reign of Henry VIII to the years immediately preceding the restoration of King Charles II. Not only are borrowings of plot and character considered, but methods of treatment, influences that concerned the varieties and kinds of English dramas, the handling of foreign historical material, national and political prejudices as affecting English plays and other like matters. The point of view is that of a student of English drama rather than that of an expert in international literature; and for this reason the reflex influences of England on the drama in other countries have been, for the most part, excluded. The demands of the subject preclude the possibility of a strict chronological treatment. The movement is necessarily that of a shuttle in the loom, now forward now backward. It is hoped that the motion may be none the less steadily onward, and that the pattern may be clearly discernible in the completed fabric. Contents include: Jonson and the Classics; Shakespeare and the Lure of Italy; French Influences at Court and Elsewhere; Spanish Influences on Fletcher, and After.