This subject guide aims to provide you with an introduction to the comedies of William Shakespeare and Ben Jonson. This guide has been designed to:
This subject guide is intended to serve as a starting point for your own study plan. The approaches to the texts taken here should serve as models for developing your own approaches. The best start you can give yourself is to read (or re-read) all the plays on the syllabus. Only then, in conjunction with this subject guide, should you begin to decide which plays and which topics you intend to examine in more detail. The topics raised in this guide are intended to outline areas of study, and none is treated exhaustively here. You may, of course, wish to examine topics this guide does not mention. In all events, the reading lists given here will help you determine what is considered the most essential secondary reading. It is up to you to decide what you supplement this essential reading with, and you will find that the subject-based bibliographies at the end of certain secondary texts will help you.
This guide does not constitute the subject itself, but it is an example of how you could construct an appropriate course of study and devise appropriate ways of studying the material you choose. It also indicates the range of material that is the minimum amount necessary to face the exam with confidence. Simple regurgitation in the examination of the illustrative material in this subject guide will be regarded as plagiarism and heavily penalised. You must adapt such material in ways appropriate to your own chosen syllabus of study. Examiners will always look unfavourably at examinations composed of answers that draw solely on the illustrative material provided in this subject guide.
Each chapter starts with a suggested reading list for the topic(s) covered in that chapter. It is divided into ‘essential reading’ and ‘recommended reading’. The former sets out the texts we discuss in the chapter. The latter list includes a number of books and articles that will enhance your knowledge and understanding of the topic.
You will find activities (e.g. consider this point, study this chapter) in boxes throughout the text. These have been designed to help you to apply what you are reading.
The 12 plays on the syllabus are:
Shakespeare
Much Ado About Nothing
As You Like It
The Merchant of Venice
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
The Taming of the Shrew
Twelfth Night.
Jonson
Bartholomew Fair
Volpone
The Alchemist
Every Man in his Humour
Eastward Ho!
Epicoene; or The Silent Woman.
These are the plays the examination questions will refer to, and it is desirable that you concentrate on these texts, although there is no need to limit yourself to them exclusively. Section A of the examination paper requires you to contextualise extracts taken from the 12 plays listed above, but you may of course refer to other plays elsewhere in your examination answers. We recommend that you attempt to divide your time equally between the study of both authors. As a minimum you should aim to develop a detailed knowledge of at least six plays spanning both dramatists.
It is also important that you spend the same amount of time on secondary reading, such as critical works and background material, as you do on the plays themselves. You will not be expected to know all the plays equally well, so you should choose those in which you are most interested and prepare answers on those.
To focus your study, it will be helpful if you concentrate on certain themes and topics that you can use to compare one play with another. The following is a list of topics that you will find helpful:
Take some time to consider how the above list of topics relates to the texts on the syllabus. It will be of great value to you as a student if you can begin to think of literary analysis in terms of a text’s relationship to a series of themes and topics, and start to analyse them according to a series of distinct topic headings. See how a text fits under some, or all, of these headings. Literary study is about the close critical analysis of texts, and not simply describing their plots or demonstrating your knowledge of what happens in them.
Please be aware that not all of these topics will be discussed in this subject guide, and you should undertake independent study in order to move beyond the scope of this analysis.
Blakemore Evans, G. (ed.) The Riverside Shakespeare. (Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1997) [ISBN 9780395754900]. A complete works with explanatory notes.
Greenblatt, S., W. Cohen, J.E. Howard and K. Eisaman Maus Shakespeare: Comedies. (New York: W.W. Norton, 2008) second edition
[ISBN 9780393931419].
Greenblatt, S. (ed.) The Norton Shakespeare. (New York: W.W. Norton, 2008) [ISBN 9780393111354].
Thompson, A. and R. Proudfoot (eds) Arden Shakespeare: Complete Works, Student Edition. (London: Thomson Learning, 2001)
[ISBN 9781903436615].
Wells, S. and G. Taylor (eds) William Shakespeare: The Complete Works. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005) [ISBN 9780199267187]. The most recent standard work. This edition does not have explanatory notes (unlike the Riverside) and is somewhat radical in editorial policy, but is extremely good value in its Compact Edition form. As stated below, particularly good single editions exist in the Arden series (especially the third editions) and the Oxford World’s Classics editions (both assorted editors).
The New Mermaid series of individual play texts is highly recommended:
Brockbank, P. (ed.) Volpone. (London: Methuen, 1992) [ISBN 978039390010].
Cook, E. (ed.) The Alchemist. (London: Methuen, 2004) [ISBN 9780554006086].
Hibbard, G.R. (ed.) Bartholmew Fair. (London: Methuen, 1994)
[ISBN 9780719051500]. Note: This edition uses a slightly unconventional form of the title.
Holdsworth, R.V. (ed.) Epicoene or The Silent Woman. (London: Methuen, 2002) [ISBN 9780713666687].
Petter, C.G. (ed.) Eastward Ho! (London: Methuen, 1994)
[ISBN 9780713639834].
Seymour-Smith, M. (ed.) Every Man in his Humour. (London: Methuen, 1998) [ISBN 9780713643978].
Equally good is the ‘Revels Plays’ series, which currently includes three of our texts:
Horsman. E.A. (ed.) Bartholomew Fair. (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1980) [ISBN 9780719016134].
Mares, F.H. (ed.) The Alchemist. (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1980) [ISBN 9780719016172].
Parker, R.B. and D. Bevington (eds) Volpone. (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1999) [ISBN 9780719051821].
A good collection is the World Classics volume, however, this does not contain Epicoene or Eastward Ho!
Wilkes, G.A. (ed.) Ben Jonson: Five Plays. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009) [ISBN 9780199555772].
Leggatt, A. The Cambridge Companion to Shakespearean Comedy. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001) [ISBN 9780521770446].
Onions, C.T. and R.D. Eagleson (eds) A Shakespeare Glossary. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986) [ISBN 9780198125211]. Originating in the Oxford English Dictionary project, this gives a definition for every word used by Shakespeare that Onions considers needs explanation. If you do not have an annotated text of a play this glossary is essential. Alternatively, the reprinted 1975 edition by C.T. Onions, A Shakespeare Glossary. (Charleston, SC: Nabu Press, 2010) [ISBN 9781177201957].
Smith, E. Shakespeare’s Comedies: a Guide to Criticism. (Oxford: Blackwell, 2003) [ISBN 9780631220121].
Wells, S. and D. Crystal (eds) Shakespeare’s Words: a Glossary and Language Companion. (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 2002) [ISBN 9780140291179].
Wells, S. A Shakespeare Bibliography. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990) [ISBN 9780198112136]. Gives suggested secondary reading for each play in the canon, including the very latest critical work. A valuable tool for this course and further study of Shakespeare’s work.
Bradbrook, M.C. The Growth and Structure of Elizabethan Comedy. History of Elizabethan Drama, vol. 2 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979) [ISBN 9780521295260].
Braunmuller, A.R. and J.C. Bulman (eds) Comedy From Shakespeare to Sheridan: Change and Continuity in the English and European Dramatic Tradition. (Newark and London: University of Delaware Press, 1986) [ISBN 9780874132762].
Clare, J. and R. Eriksen (eds) Contexts of Renaissance Comedy.
(Oslo: Novus, 1997) [ISBN 9788270992751].
Cook, J. Roaring Boys: Playwrights and Players in Elizabethan and Jacobean England. (Stroud: Sutton Press, 2004) [ISBN 9780750933681].
Di Gangi, M. The Homoerotics of Early Modern Drama. (Cambridge Studies in Renaissance Literature and Culture) (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997) [ISBN 9780521587013].
Farley-Hills, D. The Comic in Renaissance Comedy. (London: Macmillan, 1981) [ISBN 9780333275146].
Ford, B. (ed.) Sixteenth Century Britain: The Cambridge Cultural History. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992) [ISBN 9780521428835].
Forgeng, J.L. Daily Life in Elizabethan England. (Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood Press, 2010) [ISBN 9780313365607].
Greenblatt, S. Renaissance Self-Fashioning: From More to Shakespeare. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005) [ISBN 9780226306599].
Kastan, D.S. and P. Stallybrass (eds) Staging the Renaissance: Reinterpretations of Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama. (New York: London, Routledge, 1992) [ISBN 9780415901666].
Kermode, L.E. Aliens and Englishness in Elizabethan Drama. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009) [ISBN 9780521899536].
Leggatt, A. Introduction to English Renaissance Comedy. (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1999) [ISBN 9780719049651].
Montrose, L. The Purpose of Playing: Shakespeare and the Cultural Politics of the Elizabethan Theatre. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996) [ISBN 9780226534831].
Newman, K. Shakespeare’s Rhetoric of Comic Character: Dramatic Convention in Classical and Renaissance Comedy. (New York and London: Routledge, 2008) [ISBN 9780415489089].
Porter, R. London: A Social History. (London: Penguin, 2000)
[ISBN 9780140105933].
Salgado, G. The Elizabethan Underworld. (Gloucester: Sutton, 2005)
[ISBN 9780750943147].
Stubbes, P. (Kidni, M.J. (ed.)) The Anatomie of Abuses, 1583. (Tempe, AZ: Arizona University Press, 2002) [ISBN 9780866982870]. A contemporary tirade against plays and playgoing.
Tillyard, E.M.W. The Elizabethan World Picture. (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1990) [ISBN 9780140135282]. Extremely influential model of the way Elizabethans perceived the world, with many examples from Shakespeare. Now much criticised for its monolithic view and failure to acknowledge deviation from the dominant view.
Weimann, R. Shakespeare and the Popular Tradition in the Theater. Translated and edited by R. Schwartz. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987) [ISBN 9780801835063].
White, A. and P. Stallybrass The Politics and Poetics of Transgression. (London: Routledge, 1986) [ISBN 9780416415803].
Yates, F. Ideas and Ideals in the North European Renaissance. (London: Routledge, 1984) [ISBN 9780710201843].
Zimmerman, S. (ed.) Erotic Politics: Desire on the Renaissance Stage.
(London and New York: Routledge, 1992) [ISBN 9780415066471].
Barber, C.L. Shakespeare’s Festive Comedy: A Study of Dramatic Form and Its Relation to Social Custom. (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1972) [ISBN 9780691013046].
Brown, J.R. (ed.) Studying Shakespeare: A Casebook. (London: Macmillan, 1990) [ISBN 9780333319413].
Brown, J.R. (ed.) Much Ado About Nothing and As You Like It: New Casebooks Series. (London: Macmillan, 1979) [ISBN 9780333194218].
Coyle, M. (ed.) The Merchant of Venice: New Casebook Series. (London: Macmillan, 1998) [ISBN 9780333668986].
Chedgzoy, K. (ed.) Shakespeare, Feminism and Gender: New Casebooks Series. (London: Macmillan, 1998) [ISBN 9780333716526].
Dollimore, J. and A. Sinfield (eds) Political Shakespeare: New Essays in Cultural Materialism. (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1994) [ISBN 9780719043529]. Valuable for the treatment of performance as well as literary issues.
Drakakis, J. (ed.) Alternative Shakespeares. (London: Routledge, 2002) [ISBN 9780415287234]. Useful as a model of how cultural materialist criticism can proceed as well as particular insights about the plays.
Draper, R.P. Shakespeare: the Comedies. (New York: St Martins, 2000)
[ISBN 9780312227036].
Eagleton, T. William Shakespeare. (Oxford: Blackwell, 1986) [ISBN 9780631145547]. Six essays on 17 plays (including four of our six) organised around keywords like nature, law, desire, etc. Very witty and daring: heavy on opinion and light on evidence.
Frye, N. A Natural Perspective Twelfth Night: New Casebooks Series. (London: Macmillan, 1996) [ISBN 9780333606773].
Gay, P. As She Likes It: Shakespeare’s Unruly Women. (London: Routledge, 1994) [ISBN 9780415096966].
Hall, J. Anxious Pleasures: Shakespearean Comedy and the Nation State. (Madison, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1995)
[ISBN 9780838635698].
Jardine, L. Still Harping On Daughters: Women and Drama in the Age of Shakespeare. (Columbia: Columbia University Press, 1989)
[ISBN 9780231070638].
Laroque, F. Shakespeare’s Festive World: Elizabethan Seasonal Entertainment and the Professional Stage, trans. J. Lloyd (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993) [ISBN 9780521457866].
Levin, R. Love and Society in Shakespearean Comedy: a Study of Dramatic Form and Content. (Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1985)
[ISBN 9780874132663].
Lewis, A.J. The Love Story in Shakespearean Comedy. (Kentucky: University of Kentucky Press, 1992) [ISBN 9780813117867].
Maslen, R. Shakespeare and Comedy, Arden Critical Companions. (London: Thompson, 2004) [ISBN 9781904271444].
Mason, P. (ed.) Shakespeare: Early Comedies, New Casebooks Series.
(London: Macmillan, 1995) [ISBN 9780333426593].
Newman, K. Essaying Shakespeare. (Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2009) [ISBN 9780816655892].
Palmer, D.J. (ed.) Shakespeare Twelfth Night, a Casebook. (London: Macmillan, 1972) [ISBN 9780333121689].
Price, A. (ed.) Shakespeare A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a Casebook. (London: Macmillan, 1983) [ISBN 9780333270127].
Rose, M.B. The Expense of Spirit: Love and Sexuality in English Renaissance Drama. (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1988)
[ISBN 9780801421891].
Ryan, K. Shakespeare’s Comedies. (London: Macmillan, 2009)
[ISBN 9780333599327].
Salingar, L. Shakespeare and the Traditions of Comedy. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976) [ISBN 9780521291132].
Traub, V. Desire and Anxiety: Circulations of Sexuality in Shakespearean Drama. (London and New York: Routledge, 1992)
[ISBN 9780415055260].
Tillyard, E.M.W. Shakespeare’s Early Comedies. (London: Athlone, 1992)
[ISBN 9780485300154].
Wayne, V. (ed.) The Matter of Difference: Materialist Feminist Criticism of Shakespeare. (Hemel Hempstead: Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1991) [ISBN 9780745007779].
White, R.S. (ed.) Twelfth Night: New Casebooks Series. (London: Macmillan, 1996) [ISBN 9780333606773].
Wilders, J.S. (ed.) Shakespeare The Merchant of Venice, a Casebook. (London: Macmillan, 1969) [out of print].
Barish, J.A. (ed.) Ben Jonson: A Collection of Critical Essays. In the series ‘Twentieth Century Views’. (Englewood Cliff, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1963)
[out of print].
Barish, J.A. (ed.) Jonson Volpone, a Casebook. (London: Macmillan, 1972) [ISBN 9780333088968].
Barton, A. Ben Jonson, Dramatist. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984) [ISBN 9780521277488].
Beaurline, L.A. Jonson and Elizabethan Comedy: Essays in Dramatic Rhetoric (San Francisco: Huntington Library Press, 1978) [ISBN 9780873280716].
Bryant, J.A, The Compassionate Satirist: Ben Jonson and his Imperfect World. (Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1972) [ISBN 0-8203-0316-X].
Butler, M. Ben Jonson Volpone. In the series ‘Penguin Masterguides’. (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1987) [ISBN 9780333421666].
Cave, R., E. Schafer and B. Wooland (eds) Ben Jonson and Theatre: Performance, Practice and Theory. (London: Routledge, 1999)
[ISBN 9780415179812].
Cousins, A.D. and A.V. Scott (eds) Ben Jonson and the Politics of Genre. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009) [ISBN 9780521513784].
Harp, R. and S. Stewart (eds) The Cambridge Companion to Ben Jonson. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000) [ISBN 9780521646789].
Hirsh, J.E. (ed.) New Perspectives on Ben Jonson. (New Jersey: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1997) [ISBN 9780838636879].
Holdsworth, R.V. (ed.) Jonson Every Man in his Humour and The Alchemist: A Casebook. (London: Macmillan, 1979) [ISBN 9780333192054].
Leggatt, A. Ben Jonson: His Vision and His Art. (London: Methuen, 1981) [ISBN 9780416746600].
McEvoy, S. Ben Jonson: Renaissance Dramatist. (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2008) [ISBN 9780748623020].
Miles, R. Ben Jonson and His Craft. (London: Routledge, 1990)
[ISBN 9780415055789].
Sanders, J., K. Chedgzoy and S. Wiseman (eds) Refashioning Ben Jonson. (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 1998) [ISBN 9780333670729].
Thayer, C.G. (ed.) Ben Jonson: Studies in the Plays. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1963) [out-of-print].
Watson, R.N. Ben Jonson’s Parodic Strategy: Literary Imperialism in the Comedies. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1987)
[ISBN 9780674066014].
Womack, Peter Ben Jonson. In the series ‘Rereading Literature’. (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1986) [ISBN 9780631143765].
Braunmuller, A.R. and M. Hattaway (eds) The Cambridge Companion to English Renaissance Drama. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003) [ISBN 9780521527996].
Chambers, E.K. The Elizabethan Stage. Four volumes. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1923) [out-of-print]. Still the definitive work on factual matters concerning the people and practices of Elizabethan theatre.
Clare, J. Art Made Tongue-tied By Authority. (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1990) [ISBN 9780719024344]. Recent work on state censorship of Elizabethan and Jacobean drama.
Cox, J.D. and S. Kastan (eds) A New History of Early English Drama.
(New York: Columbia University Press, 1983) [ISBN 9780231102438].
Dutton, R. Mastering the Revels: The Regulation and Censorship of English Renaissance Drama. (London: Macmillan, 1991) [ISBN 9780333453711].
Gurr, A. Playgoing in Shakespeare’s London. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004) [ISBN 9780521543224]. Contains just about everything known about the contemporary theatrical audience.
Gurr, A. The Shakespearean Stage 1574–1642. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009) [ISBN 9780521509817]. The best single introduction to the material conditions of the theatre.
Loxley, J. and M. Robson Shakespeare, Jonson, and the Claims of the Performative. (London: Routledge, 2011) [ISBN 9780415993272]
Mullaney, S. The Place of the Stage: License, Play, and Power in Renaissance England. (Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1995)
[ISBN 9780472083466].
Nagler, A.M. Shakespeare’s Stage. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1981) [ISBN 9780300026894]. Makes a very strong case for the use of curtained booths (instead of a back-wall alcove) and perspective scenery (rather than bare boards) on the public stage and demonstrates the wide-reaching implications of this conclusion.
The following is a sample 20-week outline to give you an idea of how you could construct an appropriate syllabus for this course.
Week 1
Background reading on the general history and theatrical conditions of English Renaissance drama.
See Chapter 3 below, plus recommended texts: Foakes R.A. ‘Playhouses and Players’ and Michael Hattaway ‘Drama and Society’ in Braunmuller, A.R. and M. Hattaway (eds) The Cambridge Companion to English Renaissance Drama. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003) [ISBN 9780521527996].
Dutton, R. and J.E. Howard (eds) A Companion to Shakespeare’s Works: Comedies, vol. 3 (Oxford: Blackwell, 2003) [ISBN 9780631226345].
Week 2
Background reading on the cultural and literary contexts pertaining to English Renaissance comedy in general, and to the work of Shakespeare and Jonson in particular.
See Chapter 2 below, plus recommended text: Leggatt A. Introduction to English Renaissance Comedy. (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1999) [ISBN 9780719049651].
Week 3
Topic study: Pastoral, Shakespearean and festive comedy (see Chapter 5 below).
Weeks 4–9
Author study: William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, As You Like It, The Merchant of Venice, Much Ado About Nothing, The Taming of the Shrew, Twelfth Night.
Barber, C.L. Shakespeare’s Festive Comedy: A Study of Dramatic Form and Its Relation to Social Custom. (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1972) [ISBN 9780691013046].
Hall, J. Anxious Pleasures: Shakespearean Comedy and the Nation State. (Madison, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1995)
[ISBN 9780838635698].
Levin, R. Love and Society in Shakespearean Comedy: a Study of Dramatic Form and Content. (Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1986)
[ISBN 9780874132663].
Week 10
Topic study: Crossing gender boundaries in Shakespearean comedy.
Beth, M. R. The Expense of Spirit: Love and Sexuality in English Renaissance Drama. (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1988)
[ISBN 9780801421891].
Gay, P. As She Likes It: Shakespeare’s Unruly Women. (London: Routledge, 1994) [ISBN 9780415096966].
Jardine, L. Still Harping on Daughters: Women and Drama in the Age of Shakespeare. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1989)
[ISBN 9780231070638].
Traub, V. Desire and Anxiety: Circulation of Sexuality in Shakespearean Drama. (London and New York: Routledge, 1992) [ISBN 9780415055277].
Zimmerman, S. (ed.) Erotic Politics: Desire on the Renaissance Stage.
(London and New York: Routledge, 1992) [ISBN 9780415066471].
Week 11
Topic study: City and citizen comedy.
Gibbons, B. Jacobean City Comedy. (London and New York: Routledge, 1980) second edition [ISBN 9780416734508].
Porter, R. London: A Social History. (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 2000)
[ISBN 9780140105933].
Salgado, G. The Elizabethan Underworld. (Gloucester: Sutton, 2006) [ISBN 9780750943147].
Weeks 12–17
Author study: Ben Jonson, The Alchemist, Bartholomew Fair, Eastward Ho!, Epicoene, Every Man in his Humour, Volpone.
Beaurline, L.A. Jonson and Elizabethan Comedy: Essays in Dramatic Rhetoric.
(San Francisco: Huntington Library Press, 1978) [ISBN 9780873280716].
Dutton, R. Ben Jonson. (Harlow: Longman, 1999) [ISBN 9780582215061].
Harp, R. and S. Stewart (eds) The Cambridge Companion to Ben Jonson. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000) [ISBN 9780521646789].
Hirsh, J.E. (ed.) New Perspectives on Ben Jonson. (Madison, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1997) [ISBN 9780838636879].
Watson R.N. Ben Jonson’s Parodic Strategy: Literary Imperialism in the Comedies. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1987)
[ISBN 9780674066014]
Week 18
Topic study: Comedy, satire, politics.
Farley-Hills, D. Jacobean Drama: A Critical Study of the Professional Drama, 1600–25. (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1988) [ISBN 9780333386248].
Hogg, J. Jacobean Drama as Social Criticism. (Lewiston, NY and Lampeter: Edwin Mellen, 1995) [ISBN 9780773441866].
Sanders, J., K. Chedgzoy and S. Wiseman (eds) Refashioning Ben Jonson: Gender, Politics, and the Jonsonian Canon. (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 1998) [ISBN 9780333670729].
Kastan Scott, D. and P. Stallybrass (eds) Staging the Renaissance: Reinterpretations of Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama. (New York and London: Routledge, 1992) [ISBN 9780415901666].
White, A. and P. Stallybrass The Politics and Poetics of Transgression. (London: Methuen, 1986) [ISBN 9780416415803].
Week 19
Topic study: Comedy and transformation (see Chapter 6 below).
Week 20
Revision. Practice of one-hour timed answers to previous examination papers.
Week 1
See Chapter 3 below.
Week 2
See Chapter 2 below.
Week 3
See Chapter 5 below.
Weeks 4–9
Week 10
Week 11
Weeks 12–17
Week 18
Week 19
Please note that additional study resources may be available to you for this course. A particularly important resource is the virtual learning environment (VLE) for the English programme, which you can access via the Student Portal – see the Student handbook for details of how to log in.
If you are registered for Level 4 course(s) on the new programme (BA (New Regulations)/Diploma of Higher Education in English/Certificate of Higher Education in English), then the VLE is the place where you will interact with your assigned tutor group for that course. If you are registered for the BA English (Old Regulations) and the Diploma in English (Old Regulations), then please check the VLE regularly as additional material may be added throughout the year.
Internet resources are to be used with caution, particularly non-academic sites. One of the most important resources is the online collection of scholarly articles: www.jstor.org (to which registered students of the University of London International Programmes have access).
The following websites may be useful, to varying extents:
http://absoluteshakespeare.com
www.britishshakespeare.ws (interesting materials from an academic association)
www.opensourceshakespeare.org
http://shakespeare.palomar.edu
www.shakespeare-literature.com (useful extracts from the plays)
www.shakespeare-monologues.org (as the name suggests, this treats major speeches)
www.shakespeareplays.co.uk (very basic, quick plot summaries)
www.benjonson.org.uk
http://eserver.org/
www.levity.com/alchemy (especially useful for The Alchemist)
www.luminarium.org
www.monologuearchive.com/j/jonson_ben.html (locates well-known speeches)
Important: the information and advice given here are based on the examination structure used at the time this guide was written. Please note that subject guides may be used for several years. Because of this we strongly advise you to always check both the current Regulations for relevant information about the examination, and the VLE where you should be advised of any forthcoming changes. You should also carefully check the rubric/instructions on the paper you actually sit and follow those instructions.
You will be assessed by one three-hour examination. The examination paper will be in three parts. You will have to answer one question from each section.
Section A will consist of six short extracts from the plays on the syllabus. The extracts will be anonymous; that is, you will not be told which play a passage is from. There will be three extracts from the work of each dramatist. You will be asked to comment on one of these extracts. In your answer you may discuss any aspect of the text that you feel is appropriate, but you must be able to place the extract in the context of the play from which it is drawn. By ‘context’ we mean the way in which the extract forms part of the play from which it is extracted and its relationship to the rest of that play. You may wish to extend this notion of context by relating the extract to other works by either dramatist, or to the works of its author taken collectively. You will also be asked to comment on the ‘themes, use of language and dramatic interaction’ in the extract you choose.
Section B will consist of a series of questions, half on Shakespeare and half on Jonson. You must choose one of these questions. Here you will be able to demonstrate detailed knowledge of a single play and ability to discuss the play in terms of a particular topic or topics.1
1 See p.2 for a list of topics which you might wish to develop.
Section C will contain questions requiring comparative analysis. You will be required to draw parallels and distinctions between different plays and place them in their social and creative contexts. You must write on at least one play by Shakespeare and at least one by Jonson.
In planning your study you should aim to develop a detailed knowledge of at least six plays spanning both dramatists. If you prepare three plays by each dramatist (that is, six in all) there is a one in 400 chance that none of them will be among those appearing in Section A. If you prepare seven plays (three by one dramatist and four by the other) one of them is certain to appear. As well as becoming familiar with the language of the plays by close reading, you should prepare at least three topics in relation to your chosen plays, and consider ways of relating these topics to the rest of the plays. In this introduction you will be advised to perform certain activities (such as making lists and preparing tables) for the plays we are concerned with. For some of these tasks you should confine yourself only to those plays you are concentrating on, as the instructions indicate.
Please note the general stipulation concerning the presentation of substantially the same material in any two answers. In other courses this might mean avoiding writing two answers on the same text(s), but in this course you may write on the same play(s) in different questions so long as the arguments you make are substantially different.
Examples of useful key questions on the texts not discussed at length in this subject guide appear above.
You will find a Sample examination paper at the end of this subject guide.
Remember, it is important to check the VLE for: