Love's metamorphosis (Revels Plays): John Lyly (The Revels Plays) - Hardcover

John Lyly

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0719072468 ISBN 13: 9780719072468

Publisher: Manchester University Press, 2008

Synopsis

First performed by Paul's Boys in the 1580s, but of uncertain date, Love's Metamorphosis is widely regarded as the most elegantly structured of Lyly's plays. The plot looks back, in part, to the account of Erisichthon's punishment for the desecration of Ceres' grove in Ovid's Metamorphosis, bk.8, but the Ovidian story is woven into a wider network of interests turning upon aspects of love. A series of allusions to earlier Lylian compositions (Sappho and Phao and Galatea) invites the audience to view the play in terms of a continuum of work, exploring the status of Cupid and the nature and extent of his power. The play is notable for the articulate resistance offered by the female characters towards the desires of their lovers and the wishes of authority figures, while Erisichthon's daughter, Protea, is of particular interest to feminist criticism in that she offers a striking example of a woman empowered rather than marginalized by the loss of her virgin state. Revived towards the close of the sixteenth century, when it was performed by the Children of the Chapel, the play is of importance to theatre historians in that it is the only one of Lyly's comedies known to have passed from Paul's to a different troupe. It is newly edited here from the sole early witness, the quarto of 1601.

About this title

Synopsis:

This is the first modern spelling edition of Lyly's play for many decades. "Love's Metamorphosis" is recognised as one of Lyly's most elegantly structured and accessible plays. This work is part of the Revels Plays project to publish all of Lyly's plays in modernised editions. There is a Lyly revival, with two of his plays ("Sappho and Phao", and "Galatea") performed in Stratford and London in 2007. Leah Scragg has edited "The Woman in the Moon" for the Revels, along with the monumental "Euphues", the bestselling Lyly prose work for the Companion Library.

About the Author:

Leah Scragg is an Honorary Senior Research Fellow in the School of Arts, Histories and Cultures, University of Manchester.

About this edition

• Publisher: Manchester University Press
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0719072468
• ISBN 13: 9780719072468
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 224
• Editor: Leah Scragg