The Country Gentleman: A 'Lost' Play and Its Background (Anniversary Collection),Used

The Country Gentleman: A 'Lost' Play and Its Background (Anniversary Collection),Used

In Stock
SKU: SONG0812277058
Brand: University of Pennsylvania Press
$14.68 $20.97
Save $6.29
Quantity
Add to wishlist
Add to compare

Processing time: 1-3 days

US Orders Ships in: 3-5 days

International Orders Ships in: 8-12 days

Return Policy: 15-days return on defective items

Payment Option
Payment Methods

Help

If you have any questions, you are always welcome to contact us. We'll get back to you as soon as possible, withing 24 hours on weekdays.

Customer service

All questions about your order, return and delivery must be sent to our customer service team by e-mail at yourstore@yourdomain.com

Sale & Press

If you are interested in selling our products, need more information about our brand or wish to make a collaboration, please contact us at press@yourdomain.com

There was a challenge lately intended for the Duke of Buckingham upon Sir William Coventrys account. . . . The occasion . . .was a new play to be acted on Saturday last called the Country gentleman. . . . But the King hath prevented all; and the play is not acted.'Samuel Pepys, 2 March 1669This edition makes available for the first time The Country Gentleman, a play written by Sir Robert Howard and the Duke of Buckingham, personally suppressed by King Charles II in 1669. Its vicious personal attack on Sir William Coventry provoked a scandal. Consequently, it was banned before public performance and very naturally never printed. The play was long presumed lost.Fortunately, Pepys recorded the whole affair in some detail, and his description of the play's central satiric scene with 'two tables . . . with a round hole in the middle' made it possible to identify an untitled, undated, anonymous MS in the Folger Library as a complete scribal copy of the play. This find is only the second such recovery of a 'lost' Restoration play in the twentieth century.The Introduction gives a full account of the play's scandalous genesisa lurid tale of political intrigue, a prevented duel between members of the King's Privy Council, and a fall from high office. For those curious about how literary 'discoveries' come about, the editors have added an account of the detective work which began with an odd entry in Annals of English Drama, and led from the Folger Library in Washington to artistocrats' private collections in England.The play itself is brisk, delicious comedy, featuring pairs of lovers caught up in the intrigues of rivalsall against motifs of city vs. country life and scathing satire of government 'business.' The Country Gentleman is both timely in its use of the gaycouple love game, and a surprisingly early precursor of the exemplary comedies of the 1690s. Ironically, this cheerful, witty play became the vehicle for satire which shook the whole government of England.

⚠️ WARNING (California Proposition 65):

This product may contain chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer, birth defects, or other reproductive harm.

For more information, please visit www.P65Warnings.ca.gov.

Recently Viewed