Love’s cure, or the Martial Maid by John Fletcher and Philip Massinger: a modern-spelling critical edition

Pérez Díez, José Alberto (2015). Love’s cure, or the Martial Maid by John Fletcher and Philip Massinger: a modern-spelling critical edition. University of Birmingham. Ph.D.

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Abstract

This thesis is the first fully annotated modern-spelling critical edition of Love’s Cure, or The Martial Maid by John Fletcher and Philip Massinger. The play, first published in 1647 as part of the first Beaumont and Fletcher folio, has been neglected in performance and relatively unappreciated by scholarship. It had not been edited critically since George Walton Williams published his old-spelling edition in 1976, which included little accompanying commentary.

This new edition offers a modernised text with annotation and a critical apparatus, generally following the editorial principles of the Arden Early Modern Drama series. It reconsiders the dating of the play, providing evidence to assign its composition to 1615. It traces the origins and processes of transmission of its main narrative source, La fuerza de la costumbre by Guillén de Castro, and also proposes for the first time a source for one of its characters in Guzmán de Alfarache by Mateo Alemán. Finally, it also reconsiders the staging possibilities of the play based on evidence from a practice-based project developed at the Shakespeare Institute in 2012 during rehearsals for a staged reading, a recording of which is included on DVD as an appendix.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Doctorates > Ph.D.)

Award Type:

Doctorates > Ph.D.

Supervisor(s):