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A King and No King

Beaumont and Fletcher

Lee Bliss editor

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Manchester University Press

Published:1st Aug '09

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

A King and No King cover

A popular and influential play from its first performance in 1611 until the early eighteenth century, 'A King and No King' helped establish tragicomedy as the seventeenth century's favoured dramatic genre, and Beaumont and Fletcher as leading playwrights of the day.

Accompanying this newly edited text, an introduction explores the play's sources, both literary and dramatic, and offers a thorough reconsideration of its relation to its social and political context, and contemporary issues of royal absolutism, good governance, and the political role of the aristocracy. In addition, the introduction provides the fullest available account of 'A King and No King''s stage history, tracing the shifts in cultural mores that eroded its popularity and ultimately consigned it to the study rather than the stage. This fully annotated edition encourages an appreciation of the play's very real virtues and will appeal to theatre professionals as well as to students of Renaissance drama.

'Bliss provides the play with much needed breathing space in her fine introduction - Lee Bliss and the Manchester University Press have produced an edition of a fascinating play to the Revels Play's usual high standards.' Elliott Kendall, TLS 7 October 2005

ISBN: 9780719080425

Dimensions: 216mm x 138mm x 11mm

Weight: 249g

208 pages