Antonio and Mellida

<p>Antonio and Mellida was the first play by John Marston performed by the newly revived Paul's Company in 1599. Marston sought to display a variety of talents comic tragic satiric and historical advertising his own dramatic skills and the prowess of the choristers of Paul's. The play is based on incidents in the reigns of Sforza Francesco Galeazzo and Lodovico who were Dukes of Milan in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Marston displays a detailed knowledge of the dramatic works of Shakespeare Seneca Kyd and Nashe as well as the prose of Sidney Erasmus Montaigne Florio and others.<br><br>This edition relates the play to a wide variety of literary contexts. It also includes a comprehensive introduction an analysis of staging and full commentary. The text is based on a collation of all known copies of the 1602 Quarto and is presented in a thoroughly modernised format.</p>