ENGL 3015

This course will explore the richness and strangeness of some of the playwrights too often obscured by Shakespeare’s shadow. Between the opening of the first professional playhouse in London (1576) and the closing of the theatres by Parliament (1641), the Globe was only one of many venues catering to an avid theatre-going public, and the first English play by a woman was circulated in manuscript. Playwrights to be studied include Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson, Thomas Middleton, John Webster, Elizabeth Cary, and John Ford.