Description: As it considers early modern medical theories, sexual myths, and intergenerational conflicts, this book traces the development of the comic old man character in Renaissance comedy, from his many incarnations in Venice and Florence to his popularity on the English stage. As Anthony Ellis shows how English dramatists adapted an Italian model to portray concerns about growing old, he sheds new light on early modern society's complex attitudes toward aging.
Review Quotes: '...informative, engaging...work on aging in early modern comedies...Ellis does a marvelous job not only of discussing the way in which beliefs and concerns about aging are played out in Italian drama, but also of unearthing the political subtext of many of these works...many of the readings of individual plays are intelligent and fresh...Recommended.' Choice 'Anthony Ellis's comparative study of the way old age is depicted in Italian and English Renaissance comedy has the merits of solid scholarship, linguistic mastery, wide historical and literary reading, and fertile juxtapositions... This is a book likely to be used for its essays on individual authors, but its success is greater than the sum of its parts.' Times Literary Supplement '... there is much to admire in Ellis's fluid prose, and his book will prove to be a valuable aid to scholarship on attitudes towards, and medical advice upon, the aging process in the early modern period. Moreover, the book is important in providing the first full-length study of concepts and depictions of the senex character in early modern English and Italian dramatic output, and this research will undoubtedly lend itself to further studies in this rich and interesting area.' Journal of the Northern Renaissance 'The immediate value of Anthony Ellis's volume is its deeply researched review of the intellectual and scientific history of ideas about male senescence. In accomplishing this, he goes well beyond the kinds of genre - and influence - study that has long dominated comparisons of English and Italian theatre.' Text & Presentation '... solid research, thought provoking juxtapositions and elegant prose. This book will no doubt be regarded as essential reading for any consideration of Anglo-Italian intertextuality.' Notes and Queries 'Anthony Ellis's engagingly original subject is the way elderly characters in select English and Italian Renaissance comedies provide depth and substance to the social, political a