The False One: By John Fletcher and Philip Massinger

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Advertised in its Prologue as a prequel to Shakespeare's Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra, Fletcher and Massinger's The False One is the first literary work completely to revolve around the affair between Caesar and Cleopatra. In its deployment of their liaison as a venue for the exploration and criticism of contemporary political manoeuvring and its high-spirited and pungent appropriation of Roman history, the play proves to be one of the most compelling Jacobean dramatizations of the classical past.

This Revels Plays edition offers the first fully annotated, single-volume critical edition of The False One, with a thorough introduction that provides new insights on the date and the theatre of the play's first performance, examines the playwrights' reworking of their sources and explores the theatrical potential of a play that has hitherto regrettably been lost to the dramatic repertory.

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'a major contribution to the editorial history of this drama an impressive feat of scholarship: a comprehensive edition worthy of an excellent, scholarly series. Lovascios edition is not only a significant milestone in the editorial history of the play; it reveals The False One as a drama that bristles with humour and spectacle worthy of performance, and offers wonderful insights into collaborative practises during the period and the presentation of Rome on the Jacobean stage.
Early Modern Literary Studies

Author Bio

Domenico Lovascio teaches English Literature at the University of Genoa in Italy