This edition of four Renaissance comedies represents the vitality, range and diversity of the English comic drama of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, reflecting both its capacity for escapist fantasy and its concern with the intrigues of everyday city life. Comprehensive textual notes establish the plays in their originating cultural and theatrical circumstances, as well as explaining obscure references and allusions. A general introduction provides a helpful overview of early modern comedy in the context of Renaissance comic theory and practice, together with an assessment of its continuing theatrical appeal.

ROBERT SHAUGHNESSY is Principal Lecturer in Drama and Theatre Studies at the University of Surrey, Roehampton, UK.

Acknowledgements
General Introduction
Note on the Texts
The Old Wives Tale
The Shoemaker's Holiday
The Alchemist
A New Way to Pay Old Debts
Further Reading
Index.