John Marston, Antonio and Mellida

Rebecca Yearling (University of Keele)

Ed. by William M. Hamlin, Washington State University
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.03: English Writing and Culture: Renaissance (Elizabethan and Jacobean periods) , 1485-1625.
Vol. editors: William M. Hamlin (Washington State University), J A Roe (University of York), Virginia Mason Vaughan (Clark University), Ema Vyroubalova (Trinity College Dublin)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1599 - 1600

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Play

Resources

The romantic comedy Antonio and Mellida was written in about 1599 for the boy actors of the St Paul’s theatre in London. It begins with a metatheatrical Induction, in which the boy players are seen studying their scripts and talking to each other about how to perform the parts they have been assigned. The actor playing the villain, Piero, will “be proud, stroke up the hair, and strut” (Induction 14), while the actor playing the hero, Antonio, complains that his part is so rich and varied in terms of the range of emotions that will be required that “T’ad been a right part for Proteus” (Induction 157-8). The Induction ends with a promise that the author will write a sequel to the play, “if this obtain gracious …

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941 words

Citation: Yearling, Rebecca. "Antonio and Mellida". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 11 June 2013 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=615, accessed 21 November 2024.]

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