I want to thank all of you for this discussion. I would encourage someone to organize a session for one of the conferences, as Jim Stokes mentioned. I have already sent many of your messages to one of our students who is working on an honors thesis in theatre, to put up a virus shield against the textbooks he may be using. In my course, History of the English Language, the evolutionary error came up in his presentation on the historical context for etymology of terms related to theatre. I corrected him; the timely discussion has been further reinforcement! Elza C. Tiner Geraldine Lyon Owen Professor of English School of Humanities and Social Sciences Lynchburg College Lynchburg, VA 24501 USA -----Original Message----- From: Stokes, James [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Friday, October 19, 2001 11:26 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [Fwd: 12c drama] Maybe someone with lots of time to kill should work up a comprehensive list of such discredited but persistent myths and post it, post it, post it (and send to all publishers) until they (the myths not the publishers) go away. No, actually might make a nice topic for a session at Leeds or Zoo: Persistent Myths Concerning Early (pre-Restoration) Drama. Actually even "early" has a vaguely bothersome feel to it. Jim Stokes -----Original Message----- From: Anne Lancashire Sent: Fri 19/10/2001 09:09 To: [log in to unmask] Cc: Subject: Re: [Fwd: 12c drama] What really gets ME are all the anthologies of Renaissance drama which insist that early 16thC plays are the "primitive beginnings" of English theatre. (I've just been teaching <The 4PP> this week to a class doing the drama to 1642--and you will be delighted to hear that, I paraphrase the Rabkin and Fraser anthology, Heywood is writing "primitive comedy" and that "this is where it all began.") Anne Lancashire Clifford Davidson wrote: > But still identifying the Towneley plays as "Wakefield plays," which seem > misleading in the light of recent research such as Barbara Palmer's which > identify the collection as a set of plays from the West Riding. > > Some of these things are as hard to eradicate as the popular idea that Columbus > was the one who discovered the world was not flat. > > Clifford Davidson > > Abigail Ann Young wrote: > > > > Suzanne S Webb wrote: > > > > > > As a long-time textbook author (though in a different field), I know that > > > the best way to get things changed is to get in touch with the > > > developmental editor for the publishers of the big Brit Lit anthologies > > > like Norton and complain, complain, complain and threaten to drop an > > > adoption. > > > > > > The intro to the 2nd Play of the Shepherds in the Longman anthology > > > (which is the one I use for this very reason) is not as offensive as the > > > one in Norton. It says in the general intro to medieval lit, "The > > > fifteenth century sees the flowering of the great dramatic "mystery > > > cycles," sets of plays on religious themes produced and in part performed > > > by craft guilds of larger towns in the Midlands and North. Included here > > > is a brilliant sample, the Second Play of the Shepherds from the > > > Wakefield Plays. Probably written by clerics, these plays are nonetheless > > > dense with the preoccupations of contemporary working people and enriched > > > by implicit analgies between the lives of their actors and the biblical > > > events they portray." > > > > > > In the intro to the 2 Shep, it says, "It [medieval drama] developed not > > > from classical drama, which virtually died out in the Middle Ages, but > > > from the church liturgy." The rest of the intro to the play seems to be > > > based in large part on Kolve. > > > > > > Sue Webb > > > Texas Woman's University > > > > -- > > Abigail Ann Young (Dr), Associate Editor/Records of Early English Drama/ > > Victoria College/ 150 Charles Street W/ Toronto Ontario Canada M5S 1K9 > > Phone (416) 585-4504/ FAX (416) 813-4093/ [log in to unmask] > > List-owner of REED-L <http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~reed/reed-l.html> > > <http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~reed/reed.html> REED's home page > > <http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~reed/stage.html> our theatre resource page > > <http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~young> my home page