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- Title
Was Comedy a Genre in English Early Modern Drama?
- Authors
Kesson, Andy
- Abstract
This article considers the changing pressures of genre on early modern plays and playwrights. The permanent London theatres of this time enjoyed only a brief cultural life (c. 1570s–1640s) but, despite this brevity, produced radical changes in the commercial, creative and aesthetic implications of genre. The article begins with the Shakespeare First Folio which, relatively late in this period (1623), set out three genres in the form of a list across its title page:Mr. WILLIAMSHAKESPEARESCOMEDIES,HISTORIES, &TRAGEDIESThis triad has been taken to represent ‘the’ early modern genres, as if comprehensive, self-evident and discrete, but is affixed to a play collection whose contents continually defy these categories. The article then moves to the beginning of commercial theatre and the work of John Lyly. Lyly was labeled as the writer of comedies in the 1630s (by the same man who created the above title page for Shakespeare), but continually denied generic definitions. The article’s dual focus on early generic playfulness and a later imposition of generic stability enables an exploration of the creative possibilities and problems of genre.
- Subjects
ENGLISH drama (Comedy); EUROPEAN history, 1517-1648; EUROPEAN drama; MR. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories &; Tragedies (Book : Shakespeare); LYLY, John, ca. 1554-1606; MASS media genres
- Publication
British Journal of Aesthetics, 2014, Vol 54, Issue 2, p1
- ISSN
0007-0904
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1093/aesthj/ayu035