Shakespearean and Jacobean Tragedy

Around 400 years ago, dazzling developments took place in English drama. In the closing years of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, and throughout the reign of King James I (the Jacobean period), Shakespeare and his fellow playwrights wrote plays which thrilled packed audiences in London's booming theatres. Many of those plays have successfully stood the test of time and are still performed and enjoyed today. This book is concerned with one particular genre from that period: Shakespearean and Jacobean tragedy.

Introduction

1. Tragedy
   What is tragedy?
   What is Shakespearean tragedy?
   What is Jacobean tragedy?
   The origins of tragedy
   Aristotle on tragedy

2. Contexts
   'Nothing will come of nothing'
   Dramatic and literary contexts
   The condition of England

3. Approaching the texts
   Shakespearean tragedy
   Jacobean tragedy
   Tragicomedy

4. Extracts from the tragedies
   Christopher Marlowe from Doctor Faustus
   William Shakespeare from Titus Andronicus
   from Richard III
   from Richard II
   from Romeo and Juliet
   from Hamlet
   from Othello
   from King Lear
   from Macbeth
   from Antony and Cleopatra
   from Timon of Athens
   John Webster from The White Devil & from The Duchess of Malfi
   Thomas Middleton from The Revenger's Tragedy & from The Changeling

5. Critical approaches
   Traditional critical approaches
   Modern critical approaches

6. How to write Shakespearean and Jacobean tragedy
   The concept of tragedy
   Public and personal - focus on society and individual
   Other focuses for your writing - language, themes, contexts, stagecraft
   What account should you take of critics?

7. Resources
   Chronology
   Further reading
   Glossary

Index