#not that that was really groundbreaking but i did find it funnier and the trickery of the plot was more entertaining. | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

britneyshakespeare · 11 months ago

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i didn't like the roaring girl by middleton and dekker as much as i was expecting to. i have the feeling it's just one of those you-have-to-watch-it plays but as someone who has read a lot of elizabethan-to-restoration era comedy this year, there are other have-to-watch-it plays that still fare as better entertainment in a reading. basically the selling point to me moll cutpurse as the main character herself, and on that front she didn't disappoint, but every other character in the play had minimal interest to me, or if they did, they only had a little bit of time on the stage. having already known that the plot is that she saves other women from dishonor and remains a single woman by choice, yes, that's still cool—the gender fluidity inspired by the real moll cutpurse is cool. i enjoyed reading about that. but the whole action and plot around it. lackluster.

#im also a bit partial to thinking maybe i just didnt like the editing in my edition?#but i read it in oxford world classics 'the roaring girl and other city comedies'#and that's the first play ive read in that collection but i just. idk i cant tell #when i read something else in that edition ill let you know. but i own other oxford world classics edition of english plays #and i usually like them.#i kinda enjoyed the other middleton comedy i read a few months ago a chaste maid in cheapside #not that that was really groundbreaking but i did find it funnier and the trickery of the plot was more entertaining.#the contrivances were better. and the side characters were waaaay funnier. that guy and his tutor OH my god #tales from diana #yeah if you're interested in the real historical moll cutpurse or any fiction inspired by her? i hate to say it but roaring girl's a skip #or at least it's not the first thing you need to read (it's the first thing i read)#(there must be better work though)#i also havent read enough middleton or dekker to tell whose voice is whose within the writing #but i dont find either of their styles of prose OR verse to be as elegant as shakespeare's.#i found a chaste maid in cheapside to be very modern-friendly in its language and the roaring girl i found. much less so.#i wonder if that has to do with dekker? or maybe just the vocabulary made necessary by the plot was different #hard to know! im not an expert. dont think i have any authority to discern here.#i have to read one of middleton's tragedies sometime. i still havent read women beware women

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