The twelfth-century French poet Chrétien de Troyes is a major figure in European literature. His courtly romances fathered the Arthurian tradition and influenced countless other poets in England as well as on the continent. Yet because of the difficulty of capturing his swift-moving style in translation, English-speaking audiences are largely unfamiliar with the pleasures of reading his poems. Now, for the first time, an experienced translator of medieval verse who is himself a poet provides a translation of Chrétien’s major poem, Yvain, in verse that fully and satisfyingly captures the movement, the sense, and the spirit of the Old French original. Yvain is a courtly romance with a moral tenor; it is ironic and sometimes bawdy; the poetry is crisp and vivid. In addition, the psychological and the socio-historical perceptions of the poem are of profound literary and historical importance, for it evokes the emotions and the values of a flourishing, vibrant medieval past.

The Roman Actor explores the balance between private and public moralities, effectively condemns tyranny, and defends plays, anatomizing both the theatre of power and the power of theatre. This new Revels Plays volume provides a modernized text with a thorough introduction that sets out Massinger's intervention in the political tensions of his own time and examines his clear-eyed portrayal of the pleasures and perils of performance. It also includes a detailed commentary on the play and an appendix discussing the play's textual history. It focuses on the play's theatrical life in its own time and ours, and gives a detailed stage history including an interview with Sir Antony Sher, who played the tyrannical Roman emperor, Domitian, in the Royal Shakespeare Company's acclaimed production in 2002.

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