Dramatic Form in Shakespeare and the Jacobeans

These essays are concerned with aspects of dramatic form, such as plot construction and characterisation, in works by Shakespeare and his contemporaries. They focus in detail on the plays' texts, at the same time seeking to establish around them the dramatists' view of their world. Leo Salingar examines six plays by Shakespeare (The Merchant of Venice, Henry IV Parts 1 and 2, Twelfth Night, Hamlet and King Lear) and five leading works by other Jacobean playwrights (Volpone, The Silent Woman, Bartholomew Fair, The Revenger's Tragedy and The Changeling). There is also a study of Cervantes's Don Quixote, and two general essays on drama in the light of Elizabethan usage of the key-words art and wit. Each study considers its subject from a perspective which takes account of social history, stage conditions, the history of ideas, or critical theory. The essays have all been published before (most within the last ten years), but some of them in specialised periodicals out of the way of many readers.Salingar, Leo G. is the author of 'Dramatic Form in Shakespeare and the Jacobeans', published 1986 under ISBN 9780521308564 and ISBN 0521308569.