Background
Brissenden, Alan Theo was born on October 13, 1932 in Griffith, Australia. Son of Arthur Piercy and Nellie (Rogers) Brissenden.
( Written for the adult players at the open-air Swan thea...)
Written for the adult players at the open-air Swan theatre in 1613,this master-piece of Jacobean city comedy signals its ironic natureeven in the title: chaste maids, like most other goods and people inLondon's busiest commercial area, are likely to be fake. Money is moreimportant than either happiness or honour; and the most covetedcommodities to be bought with it are sex and social prestige. Middletoninterweaves the fortunes of four families, who either seek to marrytheir children off as profitably as possible, to stop having any morefor fear of poverty, or to acquire some in order to keep their propertyin the family. Most prosperous is the husband who pimps his wife to arich knight and lets him support the household with his alimony. Likemany early modern critics of London's enormous growth, this playwarned: the city is a monster that lives off the money the countryproduces.
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(Dancing was an essential part of life in Shakespeare's En...)
Dancing was an essential part of life in Shakespeare's England. Town and country folk danced at weddings, Maydays and other festivities. Queen Elizabeth prided herself on her skill (and danced galliards in the morning to keep fit), and dancing was the soul of the extravagant masques which so delighted King James. Puritans might furiously denounce it but it was part of the ceremonial of the Inns of Court and a necessary accomplishment for a gentleman. At the same time, as Alan Brissenden shows in this book, the dance was an accepted symbol of harmony, and it was in this way that Shakespeare used it to express one of his major themes: the attempt to achieve order in a discordant world. He included it in at least a dozen of his plays and referred to it in thirty. A valuable source for his imagery, it also illuminates character and action and in some plays helps to forward the plot. In the history plays allusions to country dance, (especially the morris, and court dances like the lavolta) support ideas of conflict and the presentation of characters, especially Henry V. While there is no dancing itself in the histories there is plenty to be found in the comedies and two chapters of the book closely examine the relation of dance to dialogue, character and plot, particularly in "Love's Labour's Lost", "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and "Much Ado About Nothing". In the tragedies dancing becomes a powerful ironic visual symbol, especially in Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth and Timon of Athens. After 1607 dance occurs in almost all of Shakespeare's plays, in such a way that it reflects and expresses the fusion of tragic and comic elements which characterize most of them. The closing chapters show how the dance relates to the cosmic ideas and imagery of these last plays from Perides to Henry VIII and suggest certain influences from the spectacular court masques of the time. In presenting his argument the author, who is a dance critic as well as an Elizabethan scholar, has drawn on manuscript sources, a wide range of contemporary writing, including dance manuals, and his own ideas in dance and theatre. This is a book for students and scholars, for editors, for theatre directors and for those interested in Renaissance dance. It is a book for everyone who delights in the riches of Shakespeare and the age in which he lived.
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Brissenden, Alan Theo was born on October 13, 1932 in Griffith, Australia. Son of Arthur Piercy and Nellie (Rogers) Brissenden.
Bachelor with honors, University Sydney, 1954. Diploma in education, University Sydney, 1955. Doctor of Philosophy, University London, 1962.
Teacher Education Department of New South Wales, Sydney, 1955, research officer, 1956-1959. Lecturer University Adelaide, Australia, 1963—1967, senior lecturer, 1968—1981, reader in English, 1982—1994, honorary visiting research fellow, since 1995, chairman department, 1985—1986. Advisory committee for South Australia Australian Broadcasting Commission, 1972-1975, committee chairman, 1976-1977.
Dance reviewer ABC-Radio, 1984-1988. Visiting fellow Wolfson College, Oxford, 1987, 92. Dance critic Sydney Morning Herald, 1952-1955, Advertiser, Adelaide, 1976-1984, Dance Magazine, 1979-1983, Dance Australia, since 1980, Australian, since 1990, Adelaide Review, since 2003.
Convenor awards panel, Australian Dance Awards, 2000, member advisory board, since 2003.
( Written for the adult players at the open-air Swan thea...)
(Dancing was an essential part of life in Shakespeare's En...)
(Dancing was an essential part of life in Shakespeare's En...)
South Australian member National Literature Board of Review, 1971-1974. Executive committee Arts Council South Australia, 1971, chairman and vice president, 1972-1974. Board governors Adelaide Festival Arts, 1981-1994.
Chairman Early Imprints Project in South Australia, 1977-2003. Executive member Early Imprints Project in Australia and New Zealand, 1979-2003. President Friends of State Library S. Australia, 1994-2000.
Honorary life member Friends of Adelaide Festival, 1996. Member Bibliographical Society Australia and New Zealand (president 1983-1986), English Association (chairman Adelaide branch 1970-1973), Bibliographical Society (England), Australian and New Zealand Shakespeare Association (vice president 1990-1992, president 1992-1994, honorary life 1998).
Married Elizabeth Jane Irwin King, October 15, 1960. Children: Roger James, Piers King, Celia Jane.