Skip to Main Content
 

Global Search Box

 
 
 
 

Files

File List


BGSU_Dissertations_0067_Hay.pdf (7.75 MB)

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

Nobody And Somebody: An Introduction and Critical Edition

Hay, David L.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1554464085298703

Abstract Details

1970, Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, Theatre.
Nobody and Somebodv, an anonymous English history play, has received little critical attention since it was first printed in 1606. Most critics who have examined the work have commented on its weaknesses in characterization or poetic development, or have simply noted that it is a fusion of the forms of the history play and the morality play. This study, however, examined the play in light of Irving Ribner's standard definition of the genre, and found Nobody and Some­body to be unconventional in that the clear position of order and control that characterizes the conclusions of most English history plays in here lacking. The playwright has consciously and artistically altered his sources, established characters, developed imagery, and juxtaposed scenes to emphasize the disorder that exists throughout the play. In the final scene he has brought the two plots of the play together and has created the potential for order and reconcil­iation. But that order is never actualized, as the problems of disorder are conveniently ignored by those characters responsible for them or responsible for their correction. The author has thus written an unconventional play that stresses the continuing disorder of the world rather than the clear reestablishment of order that is normally stressed in the genre. Nobody and Somebody was last edited in 1878 by Richard Simpson in The School of Shakespeare. J.S. Farmer published a facsimile edition of the quarto in 1911, but Simpson's has remained the only edited text of the play available. How­ever, Simpson was unable to benefit from modern discoveries and editorial practices established by such men as R. B. McKerrow, W. W. Greg, and Fredson Bowers, and the primary purpose of this edition has been to establish an accurate, reliable text of the play based on modern practice and scholar­ship. The text has been based on the Harvard Library copy of the 1606 quarto, It has been designed for advanced students of Renaissance and Jacobean drama. The spelling and punctuation of the original quarto have been modernized; textual notes and glosses of difficult words and phrases have been provided; all substantive emendations have been recorded and discussed in an appendix; and discussions of the text, the problem of dating, and the problem of authorship have been included in the introduction.
Lester E. Barber (Advisor)
Theater

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Hay, D. L. (1970). Nobody And Somebody: An Introduction and Critical Edition [Doctoral dissertation, Bowling Green State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1554464085298703

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Hay, David. Nobody And Somebody: An Introduction and Critical Edition. 1970. Bowling Green State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1554464085298703.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Hay, David. "Nobody And Somebody: An Introduction and Critical Edition." Doctoral dissertation, Bowling Green State University, 1970. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1554464085298703

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

bgsu1554464085298703
242
This document is provided by Bowling Green State University for research and educational purposes, and may be under copyright by the author or the author's heirs. Please contact the ETD Center administrator at Bowling Green State University etd@bgsu.edu with any questions or comments. In your email, be sure to include the URL and title of the specific items you are inquiring about.
This open access ETD is published by Bowling Green State University and OhioLINK.