Three Renaissance usury plays

About this book

"This edition provides for the first time modern-spelling, fully annotated texts of three important Elizabethan and Jacobean 'usury plays'. The edition includes an extensive scholarly introduction, which discusses early modern attitudes to money-lending, the lives and works of the three authors, and other written and cultural contexts essential for informed study of these moral and political plays." "The three pieces included in this edition discuss multiple contemporary topical debates and thus can be read, performed and studied not just as 'usury' plays, but also as 'city' plays or 'alien' plays. The Three Ladies of London addresses issues of poverty, domestic service, criminality and foreignness in the city; Englishmen for My Money brings early modern debates about gender and age to the forefront as it depicts an urban battle between English men and women and alien immigrants and visitors; and The Hog Hath Lost His Pearl assesses the state of England once these alien and city vices have been absorbed by English usurers and villains. Recent scholarship has indicated the historical and literary richness of these texts." "As befits a volume in the Revels Plays Companion Library Series, the edition is based on rigorous academic research and aimed at specialist scholars. However, the introduction, annotations and notes remain accessible for students and theatregoers."--Jacket.