Eoin Price

Happiness in early modern drama is an interesting topic because it seems to be on the fringes of both tragedy and comedy. The former shows it fleetingly before obliterating it; the latter gestures towards it, sometimes unconvincingly.

I don't understand the semiotics of the game ending mechanism in The Traitors. Red means banish and green means don't banish but red also means continue the game and green means stop the game.

Yes that would be good too

Have written about how Henslowe diary shows pretty clearly that Admiral's Men put on 2nd part plays less often so prob there were a bunch of people who just saw Tamburlaine & not part 2 (which tbf I quite like, but isn't as good and I think shouldn't be conflated)

No Antonio's Revenge would be a bit of a shame though

Taught part one alone this week - it's extraordinary

Would love to see a production of Tamburlaine that was just part one. No sequel.

Any chance anyone has a copy of the Malone Society An Alarum for London? And if so could I have a reference checked?

Yes to all!

Yes - Pestle, Faithful Shepherdess & White Devil all get to redeem themselves decades after supposed failure with different companies and/or in different playhouses.

Bad eh?

We are going to be going on strike again...

Not at all. I am v fascinated also by success of Rule a Wife and Have a wife in 18th and 19th century - another one that doesn't map.

Great - had forgotten or not realized about Bussy - that's a very interesting one. Shakespeare & Fletcher (and collaborators) always well represented.

Yes, Heywood a good one!

I don't know. Also not sure how popular something like A New Way to Pay Old Debts was at the time (evidently rather popular a century or so later).

What's Jonson's most popular? Volpone? Or Middleton's?

Yes def Pericles. Titus decent shout also.

What were the most popular plays in 16/17 century? In no order, a non-exhaustive list: Cambyses, Tamburlaines, Spanish Tragedy, Jew of Malta, Faustus, Mucedorus, 1 Henry IV, Hamlet, Othello, A Game at Chess, a bunch of B&F: Philaster, Maid's Tragedy, Scornful Lady, Cupid's Revenge. Others?

OK, come on, the Cheeky Girls, that's it, back on tour. Yeah, love your work.

Put tiny kettle on lad, I'm gasping - one of the many great underrated The Thick of It quotes. Add your own below.

For a long time I thought the expression 'why do only fools and horses work?' meant why is it that only fools and horses do/are made to do work? But now I see it means why should one do work, which is after all made only for fools and horses; why should one do the work of horses and fools?

Batter my cod three personed God

Ezra Horbury, 'Early Modern Transgender Faries', TSQ, 8 (2021), 75-95.

Gaveston's opening speech is good, eh?

Today I taught Edward II, the sequel to Edward I.

Good to know! I think it is dreadful and despair at its acclaim

I can't be the only one who found Hamnet almost offensively mawkish and trite?

I miss chatting about silly plays

I'm interested in the shape and form of a playwrighting career also. He and Middleton maybe the best known of that itinerant kind of playwright who does something for everyone? I guess Jonson does too but he just feels like a very different case. Hmmm.