| A Game at Chess: Thomas Middleton Revised Edition Contributor(s): Howard-Hill, T. H. (Author) |
|
 |
ISBN: 0719016347 ISBN-13: 9780719016349 Publisher: Manchester University Press OUR PRICE: $18.00 Product Type: Paperback Published: February 1997 Annotation: Thomas Middleton's notorious play, "A Game at Chess," provoked a scandal when it was first performed in 1624. Through a masterly use of the metaphor of chessplay, this satire of men in high places was immediately recognized. The play was performed nine times to large theater audiences before the Privy Council closed the Globe theatre. Numerous contemporary reports and official documents relating to the scandal (printed in the appendix, some for the first time ever), provide a rich content for this fascinating political play. This Revels Plays edition presents a fully-annotated text based on close analysis of the many surviving documents and editions. The play is thoroughly contextualized within contemporary politics and theatrical history. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Poetry | Anthologies (multiple Authors) - Performing Arts | Theater - History & Criticism |
| Dewey: 822.3 |
| LCCN: 97145927 |
| Series: Revels Plays |
| Physical Information: 0.7" H x 5.3" W x 8.4" (0.65 lbs) 240 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: For many years Middleton's A Game at Chess was more notorious than read, considered rather a phenomenon of theatrical history than a pre-eminent piece of dramatic writing. A Game at Chess was a nine days' wonder, an exceptional play of King James' reign on account of its unprecedented representation of matters of state usually forbidden on the stage. The King's Men performed the play uninterruptedly between 5th and 14th August, 1624 at their Globe Theatre, attracting large audiences, before the Privy Council closed the theatre by the King's command. More recently, growing interest in the connections of economics and politics with authorship have promoted readings that locate the play so firmly within its historical context as propaganda that, again, its worthwhile literary and theatrical qualities are neglected. In writing A Game at Chess, Middleton employed the devices of the neoclassical comedy of intrigue within the matrix of the traditional oral play. What might have seemed old-fashioned allegory was rejuvenated by his adoption of the fashionable game of chess as the fiction within which the play was set. The product of Middleton's experienced craftsmanship is at once deceptively simple and surprisingly complex. |