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The article discusses Richard Brome's engagement with Italy and its cultural legacy in his corpus. Apparently, the playwright's interest in Italy does not seem particularly profound since his works offer several examples of well‐known and worn‐out cultural stereotypes. Nevertheless, at a closer look, the dramatist may be indisputably listed among the early modern English playwrights who were drawn to Italian culture, art and language. Brome's use of Italian settings and his references to Italy and its literary, cultural and theatrical tradition work as a vehicle for a form of political and moral ideology which reflects the concerns of his country in the 1620s and 1630s. As happened for many playwrights from the period, Italy became a screen for the projection of moral, political and social anxieties as well as a mirror to look at England from another perspective. The analysis of Brome's oeuvre offers a fresh and unexpected angle on an area dominated by Shakespearean criticism while re‐igniting the interest in a playwright who has been an understudied figure in the critical debate, despite his contribution to the development of the Anglo‐Italian discourse in the Caroline age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The article examines the play "The Double Marriage" by John Fletcher and Philip Massinger, focusing on the characters Desdemona, Martia, and Sesse. It draws comparisons between these characters and Shakespearean figures like Miranda, Jessica, Cordelia, and Cleopatra. The play concludes with Sesse opting for self-imposed exile and assuming the role of a banished duke with a loyal daughter. The article also highlights the presence of references and allusions to Shakespeare's works throughout the play. [Extracted from the article]

This chapter has three sections: 1. Editions and Textual Matters; 2. Theatre History; 3. Criticism. Section 1 is by Steve Bull; section 2 is by Cristina Paravano; section 3(a) is by Cristiano Ragni; section 3(b) is by Yuri Enjo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the play "The Great Duke of Florence" by Philip Massinger which was licensed for performance in 1627 and mentions that the protagonist role was likely based on author André Favyn's "The Theater of Honour and Knighthood."

The essay examines how Shakespeare and his works have been appropriated and exploited for promotional purposes in the field of mobile phone communication in the 21st century. On the one hand, I will investigate the strategies used to advertise merchandising related to mobile phones. Capitalising on Shakespeare's iconic status, crafters have created covers and phone cases featuring pictures of the Bard, which range from the traditional well-known Chandos Portrait to more creative depictions of the dramatist, as he wears earphones or sunglasses. His visage, as Susan Bennett argues, has become "the signifier beyond all others in an international marketing economy" (1996, p. 36). On the other hand, I will discuss the reasons why advertising creative teams have turned most often to Romeo and Juliet, a tragedy which dramatises lack of communication on different levels, than to any other Shakespearean play to promote mobile communication providers. I will explore three American ads (Nextel Communications 2003, T-Mobile 2008, and Apple 2016), a French one (Orange 2009) and an Italian one (Vodafone Italy 2013), all reinterpreting the balcony scene from a diverse angle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the book "The Maid of Honour" and play "The Roman Actor" by Philip Massinger which may have remembered and taken inspiration. It mentions Peter Beal's discovery of a prologue to the play in 1980 that seriously questioned the dating of Massinger's tragicomedy and tended to repeat some phrases and words over and over. It also mentions Senator Junius Rusticus complains about the immorality of Rome under Domitian.

Copyright of Questione Romantica is the property of Liguori Editore srl and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This essay explores how Shakespeare developed his re-envisioning of the myth of the Roman empire and its civilization through recourse to food images in Titus Andronicus and Cymbeline. Both plays are punctuated by references to foodstuffs, animals and mutilated body parts, while at the same time featuring moments of conviviality. Within the conventions of different genres, Shakespeare exploited such elaborate food imagery to discuss, from a specular perspective, the same issues, while simultaneously conveying his vision of Rome. In Titus Andronicus the recurring bodily parts are the epitome of the fragmentation of the body politic of "headless Rome" (1.1.186) and of the disintegration of the traditional Roman values and principles under the threat of barbaric invasion. On the other hand, in Cymbeline, set at the time of Emperor Augustus, Shakespeare seems to take stock of his previous works, many of which powerfully resonate in this play, shaping an ambiguous and fascinating image of Rome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The story of Romeo and Juliet has been reinvented in a number of musical adaptations. One of the boldest and most sophisticated attempts is Giulietta e Romeo (2007), a two-act Italian production with the music of the French-Italian singer and composer Riccardo Cocciante and with a libretto by the poet Pasquale Panella. As Cristina Paravano argues in this article, the work offers a unique opportunity to rethink Shakespeare and Italy from a suggestive contemporary Italian perspective. What distinguished this production from other musical adaptations was its strong intertextuality on a musical and textual level. By embracing forms of re-creation and re -vision, it created a profoundly and intrinsically Italian version of the story, drawing on and combining Italian musical, literary, and cultural traditions. The result was a combination of Cocciante's pop-rock background, contemporary pop-electronic music, operatic conventions and techniques, and Italian musical tradition, all filtered through the memory of Nino Rota's tunes written for Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet. On the other hand, Panella's libretto taps into Shakespeare's Italian sources: while keeping to the Shakespearean plot line, the author adds interpolations from Luigi da Porto's Istoria novellamente ritrovata di due nobili amanti (1530) and Matteo Bandello's novella (1554, 2: IX). The present paper evaluates how this innovative rendition enacts a further exchange between England and Italy so that metaphorically Italy ‘reappropriates'’ its own story. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The essay explores the uses of Rome in the theatre of Richard Brome. The myth of Rome is a cultural, moral and political paradigm in the Caroline age. Unexpectedly, the analysis of the corpus of Brome, one of the most significant playwrights of the period and "literary son" to Ben Jonson, reveals the absence of a celebration of the myth of Rome, its protagonists and its language, Latin. Unlike Jonson's works, none of his plays have a Roman theme; moreover, the occurrence of the terms "Roman" and "Rome" is very low and, in most cases, they refer to seventeenth century Catholic Rome rather than ancient Rome. Nevertheless the allusions to Roman culture, traditions and history, even though not celebratory and deferential, seem to be strategic and deliberate. They enhance a dark image of the Roman legacy and, consequently, of England during the period of the personal rule of Charles I. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]