Produktdetaljer
Biografisk notat
Tiffany Stern is Professor of Early Modern Drama at University College, University of Oxford, UK. She is one of the General Editors of the New Mermaid series, and she has also edited two plays in the series - Sheridan's The Rivals (2004) and Farquhar's The Recruiting Officer (2010).
James Ogden is Editor of She Stoops to Conquer for the New Mermaids series and a former Senior Lecturer in English at Aberystwyth University, UK.
‘He’s a fool that marries, but he’s a greater fool that does not marry a fool.’
This bawdy, hilarious, subversive and wickedly satirical drama pokes fun at the humourless, the jealous, and the adulterous alike. It features a country wife, Margery, whose husband believes she is too naïve to cuckold him; and an anti-hero, Horner, who pretends to be impotent in order to have unrestrained access to the women keen on ‘the sport’. A number of licentious and hypocritical women request Horner’s services – the country wife among them.
The Country Wife has provoked powerfully mixed reactions over the years. The seventeenth century libertine king Charles II saw it twice, and is said to have joined the ‘dance of the cuckolds’ at the end of one performance; the eighteenth century actor-playwright David Garrick declared it ‘the most licentious play in the English language’; the Victorian Macaulay compared it to a skunk, because it was ‘too filthy to handle and too noisome even to approach’. Twentieth century productions heralded it a Restoration masterpiece. Sexually frank, and as ready to criticise marriage as infidelity, the virtuosity, linguistic energy, brilliant wit, naughtiness and complexity of this ribald play have made it a staple of the modern stage.
This student edition contains a lengthy, entirely new introduction, by leading scholar, Tiffany Stern, with a background on the author, structure, characters, genre, themes, original staging and performance history, as well as an updated bibliography and a fully annotated version of the playtext.
Acknowledgements
Introduction
About the Play
Plot
Genre
Structure
Characters
Men
Women
Themes
Original Staging
Recent Performances
Date and Sources
The Author
Note on the text Abbreviations
Further reading
The Country Wife
New Mermaids is a series of classic plays from the 16th to the 20th century which are presented in modernised English with on the page notes.
Teachers present editions of these plays that are perfect for students and encourage creative engagement with the text. Introductions include the latest research and critical interpretations to situate each play within contemporary culture. Editors explore the play’s language and plot through gender, sexuality, race, religion, identity, material culture and performance.
New Mermaids are printed in a clear, easy-to-use format, with notes below the text. New editions speak to students, theatre goers and actors who want to engage with classic plays as they are taught and performed across the world today.
General Editors
Subha Mukherji, Professor of Early Modern Literature and Culture, University of Cambridge, UK.
Iman Sheeha, Senior Lecturer in English, Brunel University, UK.
Editorial Board
Brandi Adams, Assistant Professor, English Department, Arizona State University, USA
Francis X. Connor, Chair and Associate Professor, Department of English, Wichita State University, USA
Beth Rebecca Cortese, Assistant Professor, University of Iceland, Iceland
Ambereen Dadabhoy, Associate Professor of Literature, Harvey Mudd College, USA
Nandini Das, Professor of Early Modern English Literature and Culture, University of Oxford, UK
Tracy C. Davis, Barber Professor of Performing Arts, Northwestern University, USA
Brett Greatley-Hirsch, Professor of Renaissance Literature and Textual Studies, University of Leeds, UK
Hetta Howes, Senior Lecturer in Medieval and Early Modern Literature, City University, UK
Hassana Moosa is a Lecturer in English Literature at the University of Cape Town, South Africa
Eoin Price, Lecturer in English Literature, 1500-1650, University of Edinburgh, UK
Eleanor Rycroft, Senior Lecturer, Department of Theatre, University of Bristol, UK
Produktdetaljer
Biografisk notat
Tiffany Stern is Professor of Early Modern Drama at University College, University of Oxford, UK. She is one of the General Editors of the New Mermaid series, and she has also edited two plays in the series - Sheridan's The Rivals (2004) and Farquhar's The Recruiting Officer (2010).
James Ogden is Editor of She Stoops to Conquer for the New Mermaids series and a former Senior Lecturer in English at Aberystwyth University, UK.