A King and No King: Beaumont and Fletcher

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.


Author: Stephen Bevington
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Published: 08/01/2009
Pages: 208
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.54lbs
Size: 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.44d
ISBN: 9780719080425

About the Author

Lee Bliss is Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Santa Barbara