Shakespeare's Festive Comedy: A Study of Dramatic Form and Its Relation to Social Custom

“A book ahead of its time. . . . revolutionized the ways that Shakespeareans thought of comedy in relation to its social setting—especially festive comedy.” —James Shapiro, Columbia University

In this classic work, acclaimed Shakespeare critic C. L. Barber argues that Elizabethan seasonal festivals such as May Day and Twelfth Night are the key to understanding Shakespeare’s comedies. Brilliantly interweaving anthropology, social history, and literary criticism, Barber traces the inward journey—psychological, bodily, spiritual—of the comedies: from confusion, raucous laughter, aching desire, and aggression, to harmony. Revealing the interplay between social custom and dramatic form, the book shows how the Elizabethan antithesis between everyday and holiday comes to life in the comedies’ combination of seriousness and levity.

This new edition includes a foreword by Stephen Greenblatt, who discusses Barber’s influence on later scholars and the recent critical disagreements that Barber has inspired, showing that Shakespeare’s Festive Comedy is as vital today as when it was originally published.

“A first-rate work of impressive imagination.” —Modern Philology

“The best book on the subject that I know. . . . Indispensable for students of Shakespeare’s comedy.” —Francis Fergusson

“Far and away the most illuminating yet to appear on its subject.” —Arthur M. Eastman, in A Short History of Shakespearean Criticism

© 2011 Princeton University Press (Ebook): 9781400839858

Release date

Ebook: 3 October 2011