Assignment: Modern Markets
Weeks 2-6: Theatrical Representations of Early Modern Markets
– The Roaring Girl by Thomas Middleton and Thomas Dekker
This is a city comedy, like Jonson’s most famous plays. It features the criminal and matchmaking exploits of the cross-dressing Moll Cutpurse.
How to find it:
Check it out from the Marriott Library. The call number is: PR2714 .R6 1987 Order a copy (ISBN-13: 978-0393932775).
– The Producers (2005) starring Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick Watch the film of the musical comedy for a twenty-first century take on the kind of swindling theatrics found in Jonson plays like Bartholomew Fair and
The Alchemist.
How to find it:
Check it out from the Marriott Library. The call number is: PN1997.2 .P763 2006
Order a copy (ASIN: B000EWBKMG).
Weeks 6-12: Early Modern Markets as Theatrical Metaphors
Measure for Measure by William Shakespeare
As in The Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare uses this play to stage a theological conflict between justice and mercy in terms of material exchange. Shakespeare’s depiction of the Duke as a disguised authority figure also resonates with Jonson’s depiction of Justice Overdo in Bartholomew Fair, not to mention with Shakespeare’s own disguised Henry V.
How to find it:
Read it online at internetshakespeare.uvic.ca
Check it out from the Marriott Library. The call number is: PR2824.A2 B39 1991
Order a copy (ISBN-13: 9780140714791).
Weeks 13-16: Marketing an Early Modern Play
Tamburlaine the Great, Part I by Christopher Marlowe Shakespeare’s Henry V might (uncharitably) be described as a charismatic showman who turns his talents to statecraft. Marlowe’s Tamburlaine unequivocally fits that bill. Watch him try to take over the world.
How to find it:
It’s in your Marlowe book for this class (Doctor Faustus and Other Plays) on pages 1-68.
Read one of the three early modern theatre texts (on the document), or you may watch the film version of the modern Broadway musical The Producers. Write a 1-2 page paper explaining how the play you chose to read or watch helped you better understand the assigned texts and themes for this course.
