Series Editor: Don Beecher.
The Lavish Lovers: A Comedy Interspersed with Music and Ballet by Molière. Ed. David Edney
The Lavish Lovers, commissioned by Louis XIV to put on display all that theatre could offer, is an important example of the Sun King's use of art as an instrument of government.
The Tragedy of the Late Gaspard de Coligny by François de Chantelouve and The Guisiade by Pierre Matthieu. Ed. Richard Hillman.
Two sixteenth-century French tragedies dealing with the Saint Bartholomew Massacre of Protestants in 1572 and the killing of the Duke and Cardinal of Guise just before Christmas, 1588.
The Tragic History of La Pucelle of Domrémy, Otherwise Known as The Maid of Orléans by Fronton du Duc. Ed. Richard Hillman
This is the first formal theatrical treatment of the spectacular Jeanne d'Arc from her visions announcing her mission, to her astounding military exploits, capture and execution.
Cortigiana (1525) by Pietro Aretino. Trans. Douglas Campbell & Leonard Sbrocchi Intro. Raymond Waddington.
This is the earlier and racier version of the play. It is about becoming a courtier during one of Rome's most decadent periods. Foolish old men and crafty servants create the debacle against the background of the sacred city.
The Phantom Lady by Pedro Calderón de la Barca. Trans. James Nelson and intro. Don Beecher.
This may be Calderon's best cloak and dagger suspense comedy, and one of his most innovative uses of theater spaces.
The Comedy of Illusion (ca. 1635) by Pierre Corneille. Trans. Lynette Muir.
An experimental hybrid of comedy and tragedy, The Comedy of Illusion examines the topos of reality through its play-within-a-play design.
The Sister (ca. 1590) by Giambattista Della Porta. Trans. Don Beecher & Bruno Ferraro.
This play is a study in "serious" comedy and its relation to tragedy. In innocence, a brother marries his own sister, and then is made to face the fact of incest.
La Veniexiana by Anon. Trans. Carolyn Balducci & Martin Walsh.
This remarkable play, possibly the most frank and erotic of its time, outraged all of Venice. On the title page we are told that it is neither tale nor comedy, but a true story (as recent research bears out). This play is as fresh as ripe gossip, in a sparkling translation from Italian and the Venetian dialect.
Supposes (Trans. George Gascoigne, 1566) by Ludovico Ariosto. Ed. John Butler and intro. Don Beecher
This is a disguise play that begins in trickery and concludes in the providential discovery of a lost child. The introduction explores the transition from erudite carnival comedy in Ferrara to the Inns of Court entertainments in London.
The Figaro Trilogy: The Barber of Seville; The Marriage of Figaro; The Guilty Mother by Beaumarchais. Trans. David Edney
All three plays appear together in translation for the first time, with all the complementary documentation included, along with an illustrated theater history.
The Candlebearer by Giordano Bruno. Trans. Gino Moliterno.
This play is simply brilliant: a gathering of comic types, jargon, plot situations, satire and bitter laughter that spills into social comment, and reflects on Bruno's own thoughts concerning memory theaters and related intellectual traditions.
Castelvins and Monteses by Lope de Vega. Trans. Cynthia Rodriguez-Badendyck.
Lope's reworking of the "Romeo and Juliet" tradition in which he rediscovered the original tragicomedy. It is a powerful vision and fully worth comparison with Shakespeare's play. A classroom "idea."
Netherlandic Secular Plays of the Middle Ages: The "Abele Spelen" and Farces of the Hulthem MS. Trans. Theresia de Vroom.
Among the earliest surviving secular drama of the Middle Ages, these tragicomic plays range in subject from Christian-Muslim relations, to revenge for rape, the foundling who returns as rescuer and the revenge of Venus.
The Slave Girl (La stiava) by Giovan Maria Cecchi. Trans. Bruno Ferraro.
A father and son become rivals for the love of a beautiful slave girl whom the father abducts and hides with a neighbor until the neighbor's wife comes home.
Mary Stuart, or, Tortured Majesty by Joost van den Vondel. Trans. Kristiaan Aercke.
A tragedy and Catholic apologetic in the grand rhetorical tradition; the play follows the events on the final days before the beheading of Mary Queen of Scots.
La Moschetta by Angelo Beolco (Ruzzante). Trans. A. Franceschetti & K.R. Bartlett.
A rustic love farce set in Padua against a background of abuse by the Venetian overlords. A rare mixture of dialect, comic masks, knock-about and satire.
The Nine Secular Plays (Théâtre Profane) by Margarite de Navarre. Trans. R. Reynolds-Cornell.
The first English translation of these plays reflecting her complex personality and religious concerns in a difficult political age.
Gijsbrecht van Amstel by Joost van den Vondel. Trans. Kristiaan Aercke.
Winner of the J.S. Holmes prize for translation. The national play of Holland, this is a historical tragedy set in 1304, written in 1638 and performed nearly every year since.
The Bashful Man at Court /Don Gil of the Green Breeches / The Doubter Damned by Tirso de Molina. Trans. John Browning & Fiorigio Minelli.
Three of Tirso's best— from love to religious passion. A triple volume.
The Widow by Pierre de Larivey.. Trans. Catherine Campbell.
Abductions, bed tricks, disguises, an old lover, a procuress; adapted from the Italian to a French milieu.
The Dog in the Manger (El perro del hortelano) by Lope de Vega. Trans. Victor Dixon.
The best of Lope for psychological comedy and social nuance. Our most adopted play!
The Comedy of Bristo, or, The Pimp (1552) by Antonio Ferreira. Trans. J.R.C. Martyn.
A learned drama from Portugal; a love intrigue with local color.
The Perfidy of Haman / Haman by Antoine de Montchrestien & Anon. Trans. Perry Gethner.
Both French plays are based on the biblical story of Mordecai and Queen Esther, the first in a neoclassical style, the second a kind of biblical farce.
Nine Carnival Plays by Hans Sachs. Trans. Randall Listerman.
These are the first English translations of nine of his best Shrovetide plays. One of our five most adopted texts. These plays are hilariously funny.
The Devil's Slave (El esclavo del demonio) by Antonio Mira de Amescua. Trans. M. McGaha and Intro. José Ruan.
A powerful play about a holy man who succumbs to lust and makes a pact with the devil; this play has ties with the Faust tradition.
About the Harrowing of Hell (Slovo o zbureniu) Trans. Irina Makaryk.
A Ukrainian play of about 1620 combining medieval and modern conventions. An extensive introduction on the harrowing tradition and eastern religious drama.
The Three Sisters by Leone de'Sommi. Trans. Don Beecher & Massimo Ciavollela.
An ingenious triple plot, written for the Mantuan carnival, an excellent example of mannerist dramaturgy as explained in the introduction.
A Comedy of Betrothal (Tsahoth B'dihutha D'Kiddushin) by Leone de'Sommi. Trans. A.S. Golding.
Earliest surviving Renaissance theatrical text in Hebrew, a Purimspiel joining Italian and Near-Eastern elements, by one of Mantua's leading playwrights.
The Female Pilgrim (La Pellegrina) by Girolamo Bargagli. Trans. Bruno Ferraro.
A sentimental tragicomedy, reflecting new aesthetic tastes of the 1560s. Famous for its performance at the Medici wedding celebrations of 1589.
The Interludes (Los Pasos) by Lope de Rueda. Trans. R.W. Listerman.
Clever interludes, part of the repertoire of Rueda's travelling players who criss-crossed mid-16th-century Spain. Robust and rowdy, these playlettes have been translated into a vigorous and theatrical English.
The Marescalco by Pietro Aretino. Trans. J.D. Campbell & L.G. Sbrocchi.
A well-known play featuring the trick on the stablemaster and Aretino's diatribe on courtly life. One of our five most adopted plays.
Comparative Critical Approaches to Renaissance Comedy Ed. D.A. Beecher & Massimo Ciavolella.
Ten essays by well-known scholars- Louise George Clubb, Douglas Radcliff-Umstead and others- on the continental traditions of comedy.
The Duchess of Amalfi's Steward by Lope de Vega. Trans. Cynthia Rodriguez-Badendyck.
A Lope tragedy in a fine verse translation on the same material Webster treated in his The Duchess of Amalfi. One of our five most adopted texts. (133 pp)
Taken by Surprise (Les esbahis) by Jacques Grèvin. Trans. L. Leiblein & R. McGillivray.
Italian conventions, but French comedy set in Paris of the 1560s. (84 pp)
The Impresario by Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Trans. Don Beecher & Massimo Ciavolella.
The great man's only surviving play. A brilliant essay in comedy and baroque aesthetics. There have been several modern performances. (69 pp)
Alessandro by Alessandro Piccolomini. Trans. Rita Belladonna.
An intricate work, written for the Sienese carnival of 1544, and imitated by George Chapman. (99 pp)
The Rivals (Les Corrivaux) by Jean de la Taille. Trans. H. Peter Clive.
This is the earliest surviving French humanist comedy written in prose, and the first to be based on Italian models. (58 pp)
The Horned Owl (L'assiuolo) by Giovan Maria Cecchi. Trans. Konrad Eisenbichler.
Prolific Florentine playwright. In this play two students fall in love with the same married woman. (80 pp)
The Scruffy Scoundrels (Gli straccioni) by Annibal Caro. Trans. Don Beecher & Massimo Ciavolella.
This play has a triple plot, in which the frame tale of two ragged brothers is joined with a Boccacian farce and an elaborate love story from Greek romance. (95 pp)
Satisfaction All Around (Les Contens), 1580 by Odet de Turnèbe. Trans. Don Beecher.
The most socially realistic and best turned of the erudite imitations in 16th-century Paris . (102 pp)
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