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Perhaps "seminal" rather than "early." Regards, Jim Kerbaugh >===== Original Message From "REED-L: Records of Early English Drama Discussion" <[log in to unmask]> ===== >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