Critical introductions to a range of literary topics and genres. Tragedies echoed the brutalities and injustices of the time and mirror other features of the age. Exploration was opening up new worlds, the discoveries of science were rapidly expanding knowledge and the country was fiercely divided in matters of religion. Tragedy explores what it is to be human and these anxious, sceptical times fuelled the imagination of Shakespeare and other playwrights. The book considers the tragedies of Christopher Marlowe, William Shakespeare, John Webster and Thomas Middleton and invites the reader to consider how they are still fresh and relevant today.

This study combines a consideration of the general issues affecting Elizabethan and Jacobean tragedy with particular comment on plays.

In Environmental Degradation in Jacobean Drama, Bruce Boehrer provides the first general history of the Shakespearean stage to focus primarily on ecological issues. Early modern English drama was conditioned by the environmental events of the cities and landscapes within which it developed. Boehrer introduces Jacobean London as the first modern European metropolis in an England beset by problems of overpopulation; depletion of resources and species; land, water and air pollution; disease and other health-related issues; and associated changes in social behavior and cultural output. In six chapters he discusses the work of the most productive and influential playwrights of the day: Shakespeare, Jonson, Middleton, Fletcher, Dekker and Heywood, exploring the strategies by which they made sense of radical ecological change in their drama. In the process, Boehrer sketches out these playwrights' differing responses to environmental issues and traces their legacy for later literary formulations of green consciousness.

"The Tragedy of Titus Andronicus" by William Shakespeare is a gripping and intense drama that explores themes of revenge, betrayal, and the destructive consequences of violence. Set in ancient Rome, the play follows the tragic downfall of the noble general Titus Andronicus and his family as they become embroiled in a cycle of vengeance and bloodshed. At the heart of the story is the brutal conflict between Titus Andronicus and Tamora, Queen of the Goths, whose sons are executed by Titus as retribution for their crimes. In retaliation, Tamora and her lover, Aaron the Moor, orchestrate a series of heinous acts of revenge against Titus and his family, plunging them into a spiral of madness and despair. As the body count rises and the atrocities escalate, Titus is consumed by grief and rage, leading to a climactic showdown that culminates in a shocking and tragic conclusion. Along the way, Shakespeare explores themes of honor, justice, and the nature of humanity, offering a searing indictment of the cycle of violence and the capacity for cruelty that lies within us all.

The Changeling is a popular Renaissance tragedy in which the relationship between money, sex, and power is explored. Frequently performed and studied in University courses, it is a key text in the New Mermaids series.

Each generation needs to be introduced to the culture and great works of the past and to reinterpret them in its own ways. This series re-examines the important English dramatists of earlier centuries in the light of new information, new interests and new attitudes. The books will be relevant to those interested in literature, theatre and cultural history, and to the theatre-goers and general readers who want an up-to-date view of these dramatists and their plays, with the emphasis on performance and relevant cultural history. How do the plays Shakespeare wrote during the final decade of his career differ from those written during Elizabeth I's reign? Philip C. McGuire shows that Shakespeare, the professional playwright, was as responsive to box-office considerations as to artistic concerns, was as dedicated to the financial success of the company of actors with whom he worked exclusively from 1594 onwards as to conveying his vision of the human condition. Concentrating on Measure for Measure, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, Coriolanus, The Winter's Tale and The Tempest, McGuire shows the impact on Shakespeare's dramaturgy of changes after 1603 in the circumstances - broadly cultural and specifically theatrical - within which he worked. Those circumstances have continued to change, affecting how his 'Jacobean' plays have been - and are today - performed, understood and valued.