John Fletcher's Rome : questioning the classics / Domenico Lovascio.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lovascio, Domenico, author.

Contributor:

Manchester University Press, provider, publisher.

Series:

Revels plays companion library

Revels Plays Companion Library

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Fletcher, John, 1579-1625--Criticism and interpretation.

Fletcher, John.

English drama--Early modern and Elizabethan, 1500-1600.

English drama.

Rome--Drama--Early works to 1800.

Rome.

Rome--In literature--Early works to 1800.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource : digital file(s).

Place of Publication:

Manchester, UK : Manchester University Press, 2022.

Language Note:

In English.

System Details:

data file

Summary:

John Fletcher's Rome is the first book to explore John Fletcher's engagement with classical antiquity. Like Shakespeare and Jonson, Fletcher wrote, alone or in collaboration, a number of Roman plays: Bonduca, Valentinian, The False One and The Prophetess. Unlike Shakespeare's or Jonson's, however, Fletcher's Roman plays have seldom been the subject of critical discussion. Domenico Lovascio's ground-breaking study examines these plays as a group for the first time, thus identifying disorientation as the unifying principle of Fletcher's portrayal of imperial Rome. John Fletcher's Rome argues that Fletcher's dramatization of ancient Rome exudes a sense of detachment and scepticism as to the authority of Roman models resulting from his irreverent approach to the classics. The book sheds new light on Fletcher's intellectual life, his vision of history, and the interconnections between these plays and the rest of his canon.

"John Fletcher's Rome is the first book to explore Fletcher's engagement with classical antiquity. Fletcher was the most influential playwright of the Jacobean era, whose canon amounts to around ten percent of the extant plays of the early modern commercial theatre. Like his now more celebrated contemporaries Shakespeare and Jonson, Fletcher wrote, alone or in collaboration, a number of Roman plays: Bonduca, Valentinian, The False One and The Prophetess. Unlike Shakespeare's or Jonson's, however, Fletcher's Roman plays have seldom been the subject of sustained critical discussion. Domenico Lovascio's ground-breaking study examines these plays as a group for the first time, thus identifying disorientation as the unifying principle of Fletcher's portrayal of imperial Rome. The book argues that Fletcher's dramatisation of ancient Rome exudes a sense of scepticism as to the authority of ancient models that is connected to his irreverent approach to classical texts. In doing so, the book sheds new light on Fletcher's intellectual life, provides fresh insights into his vision of history, illuminates the interconnections between the Roman plays and the rest of his canon and offers a corrective to dominant narratives equating Shakespeare's Rome with ancient Rome as perceived in the early modern imagination at large. As we approach the quatercentenary of Fletcher's death in 2025, John Fletcher's Rome offers a worthwhile contribution to the reappraisal of a playwright who produced a dispirited yet vibrant dramatisation of the ancient Roman world that shines as a uniquely gripping instance of the reception of the classical past on the early modern stage." -- Back cover.

Contents:

Introduction: The Roman plays in the Fletcher canon

1. 'Take your Lily / And get your part ready': Fletcher and the classics

2. 'I am no Roman, / Nor what I am do I know': Fletcher's Roman plays as Trauerspiele

3. 'Had Lucrece e'er been thought of but for Tarquin?': the inadequacy of Roman female exempla

4. 'To do thus / I learned of thee': Shakespeare's exemplary Roman plays

Conclusion: Questioning the classics

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Made available via: manchesterhive.

MUP Shakespeare / Literature Studies

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on publisher-supplied metadata; resource not viewed.

Other Format:

Print version: Lovascio, Domenico. John Fletcher's Rome.

ISBN:

9781526157393

9781526157379

Publisher Number:

www.manchesterhive.com/view/9781526157393/9781526157393.xml

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license.