Renaissance Drama

Renaissance Drama was first published in 1956 under University of Chicago Press. The journal’s goal is to investigate the significance of Renaissance drama by examining interpretations of plays, theater, and performance. There’s a new volume out every year, and it circulates about five hundred of them. In order to be featured in the journal, the suggested length of an article is 6,000-12,000 words, the editing style must be Chicago, and have to submit at least three copies. 

In Volume VIII, which was published in 1965, one of the articles included was “The Wit-Interludes and the Form of Pre-Shakespearan: Romantic Comedy” by Werner Habicht. He explores contrasts of morality and love that were featured in plays before Shakespeare came into the scene. Habicht speaks of situations that revolve around moral play, “temptation, deneration, repentance, regeneration,” (Habicht pg. 79). Habicht goes on to explain how these are typically dramatized as an archetype of morality. In the same volume, there was an article called “Forms and Functions of the Play within a Play” by Dieter Mehl. In his article, he discusses how the actors on stage are having to perform separately of their characters at some points in a play. An example he gave was how sometimes an actor on stage would divulge from the play to provide comic relief after a heavily serious scene. 

In Volume XXVII, which was published in 1996, an article included was “Elizabeth Cary and Edward II: What Do Women Want to Write?” by Meredith Skura. Her article focused more on Elizabeth Cary and her part in with History. She speaks of the claim that Cary actually wrote History instead of Falkland. Another article was “Corneille’s City Comedy: Courtship and Consumption in Early Modern Paris” By Karen Newman. In Newman’s article, she discusses Corneille’s comedies as well as how courtship was portrayed in plays. Newman speaks of how women were always portrayed as “the object of a lover’s passion.”

In Volume XL, published in 2012, it featured an article called “Recent Trends in Editing of Renaissance Drama Anthologies” by David Bevington. He discussed the anthology of Renaissance drama in England and how it had begun. Bevington discusses how Renaissance drama was introduced to more people because of this journal, and how in the earlier versions it was typically filled with similar articles. The last article was “Defining the Proper Members of the Renaissance Theatrical Community” by Mary Bly. Her article was about how playwrights would tend to “borrow” ideas during the sixteenth and seventeenth century including Shakespeare. 

The Renaissance Drama journal has changed over the years by including more topics that fall under Renaissance drama. When the journal first started out, the articles included were always about Pre-Shakespeare and plenty of the same playwrights. Whereas now, the journal includes discussions over ideas and topics that were seen in plays as well as discussions about a female playwright. This journal includes a great deal of articles about Renaissance drama that anyone wanting to learn more or a student has to write a paper over Renaissance drama they can find useful information in it. If a student writes a paper over Renaissance drama, they can easily access this journal by going to the campus library and checking the journal out. 

Works Cited

Bevington, David. “Recent Trends in Editing of Renaissance Drama Anthologies”. Renaissance Drama New Series 40 edited by Jeffrey Masten and William N. West. Northwestern University Press, Evanston, 2012. 

Bly, Mary.“Defining the Proper Members of the Renaissance Theatrical Community”. Renaissance Drama New Series 40 edited by Jeffrey Masten and William N. West. Northwestern University Press, Evanston, 2012. 

Habicht, Werner. “The Wit-Interludes and the Form of Pre-Shakespearan: Romantic Comedy”. Renaissance Drama Volume VIII edited by S. Schoenbaum. Northwestern University Press, Evanston, 1965. 

Mehl, Dieter. “Forms and Functions of the Play within a Play”. Renaissance Drama Volume VIII edited by S. Schoenbaum. Northwestern University Press, Evanston, 1965. 

Newman, Karen. “Corneille’s City Comedy: Courtship and Consumption in Early Modern Paris”. Renaissance Drama Volume XXVII edited by Mary Beth Rose. Northwestern University Press, Evanston, 1998. 

Skura, Meredith. “Elizabeth Cary and Edward II: What Do Women Want to Write?”. Renaissance Drama Volume XXVII edited by Mary Beth Rose. Northwestern University Press, Evanston, 1998. 

The Collins Complete Works of Oscar Wilde

Along with seemingly containing the entire life’s work of the Irish-born wit, The Collins Complete Works of Oscar Wilde includes photos of the author and his family, and a chronology of his life. This particular edition is Collin’s fifth of this title, which was published in 2003. And incidentally, as the text notes on its back cover, Harper Collins has published iterations of Oscar Wilde’s complete works since 1948. Interestingly, this edition also contains introductions each by Vyvyan and Merlin Holland—who are, respectively, the son and grandson of Wilde. For scholars, these paternally-proximate preludes may proffer personal insights into the oeuvre of the anthologized author.

The Collins text also includes a partial Wilde bibliography, which features major works, like De Profundis and The Importance of Being Earnest, along with their initial publication dates, houses of publication, and the number of copies first printed—often with ancillary details concerning the context of publication. What’s more, this text includes a seemingly comprehensive bibliography of scholarly articles and books written about Wilde and his works, which might prove useful to scholars of literature, who are seeking secondary sources. Along with the works mentioned in this bibliography, like E.H. Mikhail’s Oscar Wilde: An Annotated Bibliography of Criticism, the Collins edition includes editorial descriptions. Intriguingly, this often includes qualifications on the validity of the sources included. For example, under the entry for Thomas A. Mikolyzk’s Oscar Wilde: An Annotated Bibliography, the Collins editors conclude that the source is “More comprehensive than Mikhail but packed with errors,” (1262).

This resource is available for students of English at Tennessee Tech, from the front desk of the Volpe Library, under “Two-Hour Course Reserves” whenever they take English 3820—a currently-required course for all English majors at this institution.

Work Cited

Wilde, Oscar. The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde, Fifth Edition. Harper Collins, 2003.

Open Source Shakespeare

Open Source Shakespeare is a digital, web-based resource that could seemingly be utilized in unquantifiable ways—and yet it maintains some clear—and often explicitly disclosed—shortcomings. Developed by a graduate student from George Mason University, the OSS is not necessarily an especially “scholarly” resource, however, scholars may indeed find crucial utilitarian value in its capabilities. And yet, OSS is merely a website curating William Shakespeare’s complete works, which feature a number of sophisticated search engines that use a variety of linguistic algorithms to analyze the texts. And yet, that makes apparent another characteristic of this resource to scrutinize: the particular text of Shakespeare’s complete works utilized by this website is the Moby Shakespeare. As its developer, Eric M. Johnson, describes in a paper available from the OSS titled “Open Source Shakespeare: An Experiment of Literary Technology”: “The collection is an electronic reproduction of another set of texts which the Electronic Text Center at the University of Virginia identifies the source as the Globe Shakespeare, a mid-nineteenth-century popular edition of the Cambridge Shakespeare” (Johnson).

Whatever its limitations, OSS has many obvious uses. Although it uses a particular text—rather than daring to incorporate the many hundreds of existing critical editions of the preeminent and arcane Shakespearean quarto and folios—scholars, thespians, and casual readers may use OSS in a variety of ways. They can utilize the phonetic search engines, to find both existing uses of any exact search term, as well as any instances of etymologically-related words appearing anywhere in the Shakespearean canon. The OSS also allows users to search through stage directions, and the personae dramatis of each play. It has no apparent advertising feature on any of its web pages, no does it divulge any institutional sponsorship. Interestingly, Johnson produced the website as an active Marine stationed in Kuwait in 2001, and mentions in his paper that the OSS maintains an annual budget of $110 dollars, for “webhosting” (Johnson).

Work Cited

Johnson, Eric, M. “Open Source Shakespeare: An Experiment of Literary Technology,” Open Source Shakespeare: Search Shakespeare’s Works, Read the Texts, http://www.opensourceshakespeare.org/.

Great Shakespeareans

Great Shakespeareans is an eighteen volume book set that contains information on how different scholars and authors contributed to all things Shakespeare. Set one contains volumes I-IV; set two contains volumes V-IX; set three contains volumes X-XIII. Each author writes about different aspects of Shakespeare’s works. For example, some of the authors focus on his poetry, or they focus on things like new ways to look at Shakespeare’s work that had not been thought about before. Some of the volumes feature famous authors like T.S. Eliot, Charles Dickens, and Sigmund Freud. These sets are all available on Tennessee Tech’s library website for free for all Tech students. The library website, however, does not offer volumes XIV-XVIII. Each volume has different editors, and each series has shares the same editors, Adrian Poole and Peter Holland. 

All of the volumes contain a variety of information on everything Shakespeare. These could be used among English majors to help get different information about Shakespeare’s works, whether it be the dating of his plays, new ways to look at his works, or even psychoanalysis of his works. This could be very helpful in providing background on Shakespeare’s works for a paper or just for personal knowledge. The editors of the series also include notes on the contributors which gives information on where each of the authors are professors and other works they have written. This could also help an English major find other resources that could go more in depth on a certain topic if they needed more information outside of Great Shakespeareans. This resource would only be helpful for people that are writing, or learning, about Shakespeare’s works, or anyone that is interested in Shakespeare. 

Works Cited 

Great Shakespeareans Set I. Continuum, 2011. 

Great Shakespeareans Set II. Continuum, 2011. 

Great Shakespeareans Set III. The Arden Shakespeare, 2012.

The Keats-Shelley Review

The Keats-Shelley Review is a scholarly journal that has been published bi-annually by The Keats-Shelley Memorial Association for more than one hundred years. It is accessible through the Angelo and Jennette Volpe Library at Tennessee Technological University in both print and digital formats, and a limited amount of articles can also be found on The Keats-Shelley Memorial Association’s website. The journal is edited by James Grande alongside an editorial board of international constituency and is known for having a “longstanding status as a prestigious journal of major literary and critical significance,” according to the introductory information of the thirteenth volume (The Keats Shelley Memorial Association 1999). 

The Keats-Shelley Review publishes a wide range of materials including articles, poems, notes on contributors, abstracts, news, book reviews, and essays. Submissions such as articles and essays are recommended to be at least five thousand words, but are limited to no more than eight thousand words. The journal and all of its submissions are centered around romanticism, John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and their circle. John Keats and Percy Shelley were major English romantic poets in the nineteenth century. They knew each other and ran in many of the same circles. Prominent members of their group included Mary Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft, Lord Byron, Leigh Hunt, and John Polidori, and all of which are commonly discussed throughout the numerous volumes of the journal.

As expected, the most common topics throughout The Keats-Shelley Review are, in fact, John Keats and Percy Shelley. Each volume contains numerous articles and other submissions of the above listed types that are about John Keats’ or Percy Shelley’s character, life, or works. Some examples of the submissions one might expect to see that discuss the character and lives of John Keats and Percy Shelly are articles such as “Keats And Coldness” by James Burton, “Shelley’s Eternal Time: Harmonizing Form And Content In Prometheus Unbound” by Jeffrey A. Schwarz, and “Keats’s Lover’s Discourse And The Letters To Fanny Brawne” by Nichola Deane. Articles and submissions discussing or explaining the works of John Keats and Shelley can also be found, among them being “ ‘My Spirit sought/ To Weave a Bondage of Such Sympathy’: Sympathy, Enthusiasm and Revolution in Laon and Cythna” by Alessandra Monorchio. 

Submissions that are published within the journal can also relate less directly to John Keats and Percy Shelley by being about the members of their inner circle. For example, “ ‘Come Kick Me’: Godwin’s Memoirs And The Posthumous Infamy Of Mary Wollstonecraft” by Amy Rambow, featuring intreguing subtitles like “Suicide, Salvation, And Sex,” “Kingsborough Scandals,” “Obscurity And Reintegration,” and “Premarital Sex.” Another example is “ ‘A Higher And More Extended Comprehension’: Byron’s Three Weeks In Rome” by Peter Cochran.

Yet another topic for works published within the journal is romanticism, simply because John Keats and Percy Shelly were romantic writers. An article titled “Reception Of Romanticism In Japan Before World War II” by Akiko Okada is a prime example of this. Although it does not directly make mention to John Keats or Percy Shelley, this article belongs in The Keats-Shelley Review because its main subject is romanticism.

Lastly, and perhaps most surprisingly, the journal also includes poetry submissions and excerpts. The Keats-Shelley Memorial Association even hosts a contest and rewards a first and second prize to the two best poems in honor of John Keats and Percy Shelley. The winners are then given a monetary prize and their poem is published in that year’s volume; however, it is important to note that the poems within the journal are not limited to those entered into the contest. The Keats-Shelley Millennium Poetry Prize winner from volume fifteen in 2001 was an interesting poem titled “The Nightingale Broadcasts” by Robert Saxton. Some poems throughout volume thirty two, issue two include three poems by Mattew Sweeney: “Autumn,” “Into The Air,” and “The Parrot’s Soliloquy.” 

Simply put, The Keats-Shelley Review is a well-established, accessible journal that is supported and published by The Keats-Shelley Memorial Association. The journal covers John Keats, Percy Shelley, and many more less obvious topics. With an extensive shelf-life, the journal is a reputable and useful source for Keats-Shelley fans, romantic enthusiasts, lovers of literature, and college students, specifically English majors. 

Works Cited 

Burton, James. “Keats And Coldness.” The Keats-Shelley Review, vol. 13, 1999, pp. 15-23.

Cochran, Peter. “‘A Higher And More Extended Comprehension’: Byron’s Three Weeks In Rome.” The Keats-Shelley Review, vol. 15, 2001, pp. 49-63.

Deane, Nicola. “Keats’s Lover’s Discourse And The Letters To Fanny Brawne.” The Keats-Shelley Review, vol. 13, 1999, pp. 105-114.

The Keats-Shelley Memorial Association. The Keats-Shelley Review, vol. 13, 1999.

The Keats-Shelley Memorial Association. The Keats-Shelley Review, vol. 15, 2001.

The Keats-Shelley Memorial Association. The Keats-Shelley Review, vol. 32, no. 2, 2018.

Monorchio, Alessandra. “‘My Spirit sought/ To Weave a Bondage of Such Sympathy’: Sympathy, Enthusiasm and Revolution in Laon and Cythna.” The Keats-Shelley Review, vol. 32, no. 2, 2018, pp. 123-133.

Okada, Akiko. “Reception Of Romanticism In Japan Before World War II.” The Keats-Shelley Review, vol. 15, 2001, pp. 88-106.

Rambow, Amy. “‘Come Kick Me’: Godwin’s Memoirs And The Posthumous Infamy Of Mary Wollstonecraft.” The Keats-Shelley Review, vol. 13, 1999, pp. 24-57.

Saxton, Robert. “The Nightingale Broadcasts.” The Keats-Shelley Review, vol. 15, 2001, pp. 11-12.

Schwarz, Jeffrey A. “Shelley’s Eternal Time: Harmonizing Form And Content In Prometheus Unbound.” The Keats-Shelley Review, vol. 13, 1999, pp. 76-87.

Sweeney, Matthew. “Autumn.” The Keats-Shelley Review, vol. 32, no. 2, 2018, p. 176.

Sweeney, Matthew. “Into The Air.” The Keats-Shelley Review, vol. 32, no. 2, 2018, p. 177.

Riverside Shakespeare

     The Riverside Shakespeare collection is a comprehensive work that includes supplemental work to help acholars study Shakespeare in a more organized way. This book holds a wide editorial staff from places all over America. The General and Textual editors are G. Blakemore Evans (Harvard University) and J.J.M. Tobin (University of Massachusetts.) The rest of the editorial staff includes: Herschel Baker (Harvard), Anne Barton ( Trinity College), Frank Kermode (King’s College), Harry Levin (Harvard), Hallett Smith( California Institute of Technology),  and Marie Edel (Houghton Mifflin Company)(ii). This staff helps add essays, illustrations, and historical information to the texts of shakespeare that bring it to life.

    This source is organized into a vast introduction, which includes: a list of illustrations, abbreviations, a General introduction, 20th century Shakespeare Criticism, Shakespeare text, Glossary of Selected Bibliographical Terms, Chronology and Sources, and opening pages of the first folio (ix). All of this is before the first play appears. The plays are organized by type to make studying them easier. It begins with Comedy, then Histories, Tragedies, Romances, and ending with Poems. At the end of the resource are several critical essays.

    This text may appear to be dauntingly enormous, but within is a wealth of easily navigable information. Before and after each play are some notes to help people study the play. At the beginning of The Comedy of Errors an introduction appears by Anne Barton; this introduction introduces some of the themes and motifs of the play. There is also an index that ranges from pgs 2036- 2048, divided into topics. The first index is of characters, then an index to First Lines of The Passionate Pilgrim,  finally First lines of songs and song snatches. At the end is a concise glossary to assist with terminology.

    This source is an excellent guide to Shakespeare’s works, especially for the novice. These works are almost designed to be explored and delved into, this work makes that easier by providing multiple sources in one location. By having critical analysis within a few page flips assists many scholars in the reading and understanding of texts, the Riverside just happens to conveniently package it for people.

Works Cited

Shakespeare, William, G. Blakemore Evans, and J. J. M. Tobin. The Riverside Shakespeare. Boston:

     Houghton Mifflin, 1997. Print.