The Genius of the Early English Theater

by Sylvan Barnet (Editor), Morton Berman (Editor), William Burto (Editor)

The Genius of the Early English Theater

Genres: Plays, Drama, Theatre, Nonfiction, Anthologies

464 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1962

About the author

Sylvan Barnet is an American literary critic and Shakespearean scholar. He is a Fletcher Professor of English Emeritus at Tufts University.

Barnet is the author of numerous books and articles on Shakespeare. He is the general editor of the Signet Classics Shakespeare,[1] the author of A Short Guide to Shakespeare,[2] and has written many textbooks. He is the co-author with William Burto of occasional essays on aspects of Japanese art.[3] He has also written books about the art of writing.

Reviews

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume contains seven plays and a few essays of literary criticism. The plays are: Abraham and Isaac/ Anonymous; The Second Shepherd's Play/ Anonymous; Everyman/ Anonymous; Doctor Faustus/ Christopher Marlowe; Macbeth/ William Shakespeare; Volpone/ Ben Jonson; and Samson Agonistes/ John Milton.
The only ones I had previously read were Macbeth and Samson Agonistes. I had seen Volpone played 50 years ago. It was a joy to reread Macbeth and to get to experience Faustus and Everyman for the first time. I think that reading the plays was very worthwhile, but the essays were tedious and extremely long-winded.

[Todd Honig · Rating 4 out of 5]

There were some very good plays in this collection. My favotites were Abraham and Isaac, Doctor Faustus, Macbeth and Volpone.

[Tinquerbelle]

1) Abraham and Isaac; Anonymous
2) The Second Shepherds' Play; Anonymous
3) Everyman; Anonymous
4) Doctor Faustus; Marlowe, Christopher
5) Macbeth; Shakespeare, William
6) Volpone; Jonson, Ben
7) Samson Agonistes; Milton, John