Book description
"This Malevole is one of the most prodigious affections that ever
conversed with nature: a man, or rather a monster, more discontent than
Lucifer." The Malcontent is a striking example of the new satiric
tone and moral seriousness in English comedy of the early 1600s. The
play's vision of a fallen humanity driven by lust and ambition is
created partly by its depiction of Machiavellian intrigue in the court
of Genoa, and partly by the disaffected Malevole, the malcontent of the
title, who is actually the deposed Duke Altofronto in disguise.
Marston's tragi-comedy is full of reversals, surprises and moral
transformations and offers a thin disguise for the Jacobean court and
its vices. This new student edition contains a lengthy new Introduction
with background on the author, date and sources, theme, critical
interpretation and stage history. W. David Kay is Professor Emeritus
in the Department of English at the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign. He is the author of Ben Jonson: A Literary Life and of
essays on Erasmus, Jonson, and Shakespeare.
