Who counts in Farquhar?
Article Abstract:
The comedies of the English Enlightenment dramatist George Farquhar are filled with male characters obsessed with counting. Farquhar uses counting of money, women, time, distance and map coordinates to signify the ascendancy of a new social order, based more upon wealth and commercialism than hierarchical and geographic position. Farquhar peoples his plays with rootless characters who further illustrate that place as a determinant of social rank and responsibility has been replaced by money and time. He also offers other signs of social decay, such as the decline of hospitality and service.
Publication Name: Comparative Drama
Subject: Literature/writing
ISSN: 0010-4078
Year: 1997
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The ordering of Shakespeare's earliest comedies: new uses of old evidence
Article Abstract:
William Shakespeare's first comedy plays can be given a reordered chronology based upon their internal styles and known biographical information of the playwright's life. The first comedy was probably 'Two Gentlemen of Verona,' in the romantic mode. The second comedy was then 'Taming of the Shrew,' a farce. This was followed by the sitcom 'A Comedy of Errors.' These three modes were then combined in the fourth comedy, 'Love's Labor's Lost.'
Publication Name: Comparative Drama
Subject: Literature/writing
ISSN: 0010-4078
Year: 1993
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Performers and performance in the earliest serious secular plays in the Netherlands
Article Abstract:
The Hulthem manuscript comprises ten plays from 14th century Netherlands, the oldest serious secular and vernacular farces in Western Europe. These plays required professional actors wearing masks, using a tiring house with two stage entrances. Evidence for the use of a stage, actors and masks comes from within the plays, which contain practical directions and dramatic techniques which would accommodate such features.
Publication Name: Comparative Drama
Subject: Literature/writing
ISSN: 0010-4078
Year: 1992
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- Abstracts: Structure, characterization, and the new community in four plays of Jesus and the Doctors. 'Sermo in Cantilena': structure as symbol in 'Imago Sancti Nicolai.' (Continental Medieval Drama)
- Abstracts: A reassessment of the date and provenance of the Cornish 'Ordinalia.' Iconographic contexts of the Swedish 'De uno peccatore qui promeruit gratiam.' (Continental Medieval Drama)