Dramatis Personae

This book examines Passion Plays , Mysteries and Moralities as well as the folk farces that flourished during the Middle Ages. Philip Freund goes on to discuss developments during the Renaissance in Italy such as the commedia dell'arte, as well as exalted musical innovations culminating in operas and ballets. The book discusses the drama of Europe - including Spain, France, Germany, Holland and of course Britain - where theatre reached an extraordinary climax in the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods in the work of Shakespeare and others. Freund gives a summary of Shakespeare's plays and how they have been interpreted through the centuries and also examines in detail his contemporaries - Marlowe, Kyd, Ford, Beaumont, Fletcher and others - before considering the work of Jonson and Webster, two great dramatists who outlived the Bard.