Book contents
- Nostalgia in Print and Performance, 1510–1613
- Nostalgia in Print and Performance, 1510–1613
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Merry Worlds
- Chapter 2 Dreamless Art for the People
- Chapter 3 Common People
- Chapter 4 Martin and Anti-Martin, 1588–1590
- Chapter 5 Merry Histories, 1598–1599
- Chapter 6 Shakespeare’s Ballads, 1598–1610
- Chapter 7 The Merry Worlds of Windsor in 1600
- Epilogue
- References
- Index
Introduction
The Merry Worlds of Merry England
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 June 2019
- Nostalgia in Print and Performance, 1510–1613
- Nostalgia in Print and Performance, 1510–1613
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Merry Worlds
- Chapter 2 Dreamless Art for the People
- Chapter 3 Common People
- Chapter 4 Martin and Anti-Martin, 1588–1590
- Chapter 5 Merry Histories, 1598–1599
- Chapter 6 Shakespeare’s Ballads, 1598–1610
- Chapter 7 The Merry Worlds of Windsor in 1600
- Epilogue
- References
- Index
Summary
Beginning with the wildly unsuccessful first performance of Francis Beaumont’s The Knight of the Burning Pestle in 1607, the introduction interrogates the idea of mirth in early modern England. It argues that ‘mirth’ was understood in three distinct but related senses: as a historically inflected hangover from the pre-Reformation past (‘the merry world’); as secular pastime; and as a generic category denoting certain kinds of entertainment. It sets out the emergence of nostalgia for the pre-Reformation past alongside the growth of a competitive professional theatre and print market. The Knight of the Burning Pestle dramatises the dynamic between the nostalgic desire of audience for past pleasures, both theatrical and historical, and the pressure of the competitive theatre towards novelty. The second half of the chapter situates this tension in relation to the historical rupture of the Reformation; to the explosion in cheap print; and contemporary cultures of performance.
- Type
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- Information
- Nostalgia in Print and Performance, 1510–1613Merry Worlds, pp. 1 - 30Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2019