Jacobean City Comedy

<p>The first decade of the Jacobean age witnessed a sudden profusion of comedies satirizing city life; among these were comedies by Ben Jonson John Marston and Thomas Middleton as well as the bulk of the repertory of the newly-established children’s companies at Blackfriars and Paul’s. The playwrights self-consciously forged a new genre which attracted London audiences with its images of folly and vice in Court and City and hack-writing dramatists were prompt to cash in on a new theatrical fashion. </p><p>This study first published in 1980 examines ways in which the Jacobean city comedy reflect on the self-consciousness of audiences and the concern of the dramatists with Jacobean society. This title will be of interest of students of Renaissance Drama English Literature and Performance. </p>