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Overview
"Andrew Gurr has written a stimulating introduction to the play itself and its theatrical background."The Times Literary Supplement
Written in 1609 for Shakespeare's company, Philaster is one of the most ambitious works of literary collaboration ever attempted. Whereas only the lowest potboiling third of the dramatic repertory of the time was produced by multiple authorship, this hybrid drama by a pair of young dramatists was also a new type of tragicomedy. Its success led the play to be performed for over thirty years and made Beaumont and Fletcher the only authors besides Shakespeare and Jonson to be granted the accolade of a posthumous collection of their plays in Folio. Andrew Gurr's substantial commentary and notes have never been surpassed since the first publication of the edition and joins the list of over thirty plays currently published in The Revels Plays.
Synopsis
Written in 1609 for Shakespeare's company, Philaster is one of the most ambitious works of literary collaboration ever attempted. Whereas only the lowest potboiling third of the dramatic repertory of the time was produced by multiple authorship, this hybrid drama by a pair of young dramatists was also a new type of tragicomedy. Its success led the play to be performed for over thirty years and made Beaumont and Fletcher the only authors besides Shakespeare and Jonson to be granted the accolade of a posthumous collection of their plays in Folio. Andrew Gurr's substantial commentary and notes have never been surpassed since the first publication of the edition and joins the list of over thirty plays currently published in The Revels Plays.