John Ford (1586-1637) was an English playwright and poet whose interest in aberrant psychology helped him create very unique, and very successful works. After a period of major collaboration with various playwrights, from about 1621 to 1625, Ford began working independently; writing plays for theatrical companies like the King's Men at the Blackfriars. Following the literary reign of such figures as Jonson, Marlowe and Shakespeare, Ford fel ...
Sir James Matthew Barrie (1860-1937), best remembered as the creator of Peter Pan, was a Scottish author and dramatist whose works have enjoyed frequent revivals in film and on stage. The 1917 production of his play, «Dear Brutus», was one in a long string of successes for Barrie. The play, set in the manor of a mysterious man called Lob, takes a group of ordinary men and women and asks the question: What might happen to a person given the oppor ...
Combined in this volume are two of Richard Brinsley Sheridan's most loved works, «The School for Scandal» and «The Rivals». «The School for Scandal» is Richard Brinsley Sheridan's classic comedy that pokes fun at London upper class society in the late 1700s. Often referred to as a «comedy of manners», «The School for Scandal» is one Sheridan's most performed plays and a classic of English comedic drama. «The Rivals» was Richard Br ...
Born and educated in Dublin, Ireland, William Butler Yeats discovered early in his literary career a fascination with Irish folklore and the occult. He was a complex man, who struggled between beliefs in the strange and supernatural, and scorn for modern science. He was intrigued by the idea of mysticism, yet had little regard for Christianity. His close friend, Ezra Pound, exposed Yeats to the symbolic theatre genre of Japanese Noh drama, promp ...
"Pygmalion" is considered to be one of George Bernard Shaw's greatest works. It is the story of how the arrogant phonetics professor Henry Higgins teaches the lowly flower girl Eliza Doolittle to lose her cockney accent and speak like a lady. «Pygmalion» is a witty comedic play that examines the artificiality of social class distinctions and shows that it takes more than just talking like a lady to become one. ...
Benjamin Jonson (1572-1637) was a Renaissance dramatist, poet and actor, known best for his satirical plays and lyric poems. He worked shortly as an actor in «The Admiral's Men», but soon moved on to writing original plays for the troupe. Jonson's works are highly significant to the English Renaissance, and are particularly recognizable because of his consistencies in style, intricacy of plot, characterization and setting. He focused o ...
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) is revered as one of the great British dramatists, credited not only with memorable works, but the revival of the then-suffering English theatre. Shaw was born in Dublin, Ireland, left mostly to his own devices after his mother ran off to London to pursue a musical career. He educated himself for the most part, and eventually worked for a real estate agent. This experience founded in him a concern for social injus ...
Henrik Ibsen's «Love's Comedy» is the story of two students, Falk and Lind, who go to stay at the country house of Mrs. Halm. Lind is interested in being a missionary while Falk's interests lie in poetry. While at the house of Mrs. Halm the two become romantically involved with her two daughters, Anna and Svanhild. Written in 1862, «Love's Comedy» is described as one of Ibsen's most poignant love stories. ...
George Bernard Shaw's play «The Devil's Disciple» is the story of Richard Dudgeon. Set during the Revolutionary War, Richard is considered by his friends and family be the «Devil's disciple» because of his rebellious personality and unfaithfulness to religion. However, when British Soldiers visit the home of the town's minister, Anthony Anderson, with the intentions of arresting Anderson, Mr. Dudgeon's true colors are sh ...