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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