Background
Peele was born on July 25, 1556 in London, England.
(13th century history viewed from 16th century drama writt...)
13th century history viewed from 16th century drama written by a contemporary of Shakespeare: Prince Lluellen is engaged in mortal combat while pressing the sovereignty of Wales from his Snowdonian bastion. "Peele's EDWARD I presents to us a king, determined to unite the people of his kingdom, who opposes the ethnic and regional partisanship of Wales and Scotland. Peele presents an elemental case of a leader who feels deep emotions of duty and ambition, generosity and anger, gratitude and grief, while struggling against adverse forces along the classic lines of heroic drama." This edition is the retroform which unriddles the text, with modern spelling and punctuation and an introduction for readers who are not familiar with the play.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0960100075/?tag=2022091-20
(The Araygnement of Paris, edited by R. Mark Benbow, plus ...)
The Araygnement of Paris, edited by R. Mark Benbow, plus two other plays.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0300011857/?tag=2022091-20
Peele was born on July 25, 1556 in London, England.
George Peele was educated at Christ's Hospital, and entered Broadgates Hall (Pembroke College), Oxford, in 1571.
In 1574 he removed to Christ Church, taking his B. A. degree in 1577, and proceeding M. A. in 1579.
Peele's occasional poems, for example, A Farewell and Polyhymnia, made melodious use of blank verse when it was not yet a common measure and his short lyrics have sweetness and simple grace.
The plays known to be his are The Arraignment of Paris (c. 1582), The Battle of Alcazar (c. 1590), Edward I (c. 1590), David and Bethsabe (c. 1591), and The Old Wives' Tale (c. 1593).
Many others have been ascribed to him.
The Arraignment, which turns the myth of Paris' judgment into a compliment to Queen Elizabeth, is the earliest existing pastoral play in English.
Edward I, though crude, shows an interest both in the developing chronicle-history play and in the native realism inherited from the miracle plays.
Peele uses this realism effectively in The Old Wives' Tale, where a conventional romantic plot of wandering knights is made absurd by contrast with homely peasant diction.
At his best Peele wrote with a sweetness of diction new to the English theater, and even before Christopher Marlowe he made blank verse an effective dramatic vehicle.
The sorry traditions of his reckless life were emphasized by the use of his name in connexion with the apocryphal Merrie conceited Jests of George Peele (printed in 1607).
(13th century history viewed from 16th century drama writt...)
(The famous poem "A Farewell to Arms" by George Peele, whi...)
(The Araygnement of Paris, edited by R. Mark Benbow, plus ...)
Peele had married as early as 1583 a lady who brought him some property, which he speedily dissipated.