The Towneley Cycle: Unity and Diversity

(Hardback)

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Description

Provides an overview of and introduction to the Towneley cycle of plays, a 32-play cycle written in c 1500, which begins with the fall of Lucifer and ends with the Last Judgement, and was performed as part of the festival of Corpus Christi in Wakefield. This volume examines the cycle's textual history, and discusses issues of language and style.

Reviews

'Happe has written an admirable study, which is attractively produced by its publisher. There will be no justice if it is not for many years the book on the Towneley plays.'Andrew Breeze, University of Navarre, Pamplona, MLR, 103.3, 2008 'This book offers rich examples for the study of primary theatre texts and secondary civic documents. Happe's book significantly updates A. C. Cawley's earlier efforts on the Towneley cycle, and no future study of this important manuscript will be complete without reference to his work.' John Warrick, Theatre Notebook, Vol. 62, No. 3

Author Bio

Peter Happe was formerly Principal of Barton Peveril Sixth Form College in Hampshire and is currently a Visiting Fellow in the Department of English at Southampton University. He has published many editions of medieval and early modern drama, including Tudor Interludes (Penguin, 1972), English Mystery Plays (Penguin, 1975) and Four Morality Plays (Penguin, 1979). His critical works include John Bale (Twayne, 1996) and English Drama Before Shakespeare (Longman, 1999). He has published over 25 articles on medieval and Jacobean theatre.