A comparative study of the five types of disguises and plot patterns found in Elizabethan drama. Specifically examines the female page, the boy bride, the rogue in multi-disguise, the spy in disguise, and the lover in disguise.

Excerpt from Disguise Plots in Elizabethan Drama: A Study in Stage Tradition If we narrow our View to a single type Of literature, the drama, we shall find a long succession Of disguise situations reaching its height in the Renaissance drama of Italy, Eng land, and Spain. On the London stage alone disguise occurs with important dramatic functions in more than two hundred extant plays which were produced before the death of Shakespeare. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Under an alphabetical list of relevant terms, names and concepts, the book reviews current knowledge of the character and operation of theatres in Shakespeare's time, with an explanation of their origins>

Disguise devices figure in many early modern English plays, and an examination of them clearly affords an important reflection on the growth of early theatre as well as on important aspects of the developing nation. In this study Peter Hyland considers a range of practical issues related to the performance of disguise. He goes on to examine various conceptual issues that provide a background to theatrical disguise (the relation of self and "other", the meaning of mask and performance). He looks at many disguise plays under three broad headings. He considers moral issues (the almost universal association of disguise with "evil"); social issues (sumptuary legislation, clothing, and the theatre, and constructions of class, gender and national or racial identity); and aesthetic issues (disguise as an emblem of theatre, and the significance of disguise for the dramatic artist). The study serves to examine the significant ways in which disguise devices have been used in early modern drama in England.

Examines a variety of plays between 1550-1600 to demonstrate how they asserted ideas and ideals of 'Englishness' for audiences.

Vols. 30-54 include 1932-56 of "Victorian bibliography," prepared by a committee of the Victorian Literature Group of the Modern Language Association of America.

Twenty-nine collected essays represent a critical history of Shakespeare's play as text and as theater, beginning with Samuel Johnson in 1765, and ending with a review of the Royal Shakespeare Company production in 1991. The criticism centers on three aspects of the play: the love/friendship debate.