Contexts of Renaissance comedy

This book discusses the evolution of comic forms in the Renaissance and the social negotiations of the genre. The majority of the essays focus on the english Renaissance stage, but the collection also attemts to be more transcultural in including essays on Italian commedia erudita to provide a broader basis for the study of the generic and textual interplay, seen when comedies by Lyly, Jonson and Shakespeare engaged with and responded creatively to their precursors.