The Shepherd's Holiday

The Shepherd's Holiday: A Pastoral Tragi-Comedy

Sylvia came to live among the shepherds of Arcadia. She and the shepherd Thyrsis are in love. But then she is abducted. Why? What is her true identity? And what is the parentage of Thyrsis, who was found as a child by a shepherd? What will become of Sylvia and Thyrsis when the shepherds are called to entertain the royal court of Arcadia? And what will come of the romantic entanglements of some of the other shepherds and shepherdesses?

Joseph Rutter was a member of Ben Jonson's circle of poets, known for his translation of Corneille's The Cid. The Shepherd’s Holiday: A Pastoral Tragi-Comedy enjoyed some popularity in its day. The play was performed about 1634 at the Palace of Whitehall before King Charles I and Queen Henrietta Maria, and received public performances at the Cockpit Stage, Drury Lane, London. Professor Felix Emanuel Schelling considered the play “an estimable piece of work not wanting in dramatic power or poetic embellishment.”

---

Kindle edition

amazon.com

The Shepherd's Holiday: A Pastoral Tragi-Comedy, Kindle ebook, amazon.co.uk

The Shepherd's Holiday: A Pastoral Tragi-Comedy, Kindle ebook, amazon.ca

The Shepherd's Holiday: A Pastoral Tragi-Comedy (English Edition), Kindle eBook, amazon.de

---

Paperback

Publication Date: April 26, 2016
ISBN/EAN13: 1532920911 / 9781532920912
Page Count: 152
Binding Type: US Trade Paper
Trim Size: 6" x 9"
Language: English
Color: Black and White
Related Category: Drama / English

amazon.com

createspace.com

The Shepherd's Holiday: A Pastoral Tragi-Comedy, paperback, amazon.co.uk

The Shepherd's Holiday: A Pastoral Tragi-Comedy, paperback, amazon.ca

The Shepherd's Holiday: A Pastoral Tragi-Comedy, Paperback, amazon.de

---

The Cid

In 1637, soon after the first performances in France of Pierre Corneille’s famous play Le Cid, English poet and playwright Joseph Rutter translated the play from the French rhyming alexandrine couplets into English iambic pentameter verse. Two pupils of Rutter, Richard and Edward Sackville, sons of Edward Sackville, fourth Earl of Dorset, may have contributed to Rutter’s translation.

Rutter’s translation was performed at the English royal court before King Charles I and his wife Queen Henrietta Maria, and subsequently at the Cockpit Stage, Drury Lane, London, by the king’s players.

The play, described as a tragicomedy, tells of the Spanish military hero who must avenge an insult to his father by killing in a duel the father of the woman that he loves.

I have edited the 1637 text and have updated the spelling for a new paperback edition of The Cid, and also for a Kindle ebook. I have also added my own translation of two soliloquies that Rutter’s translation had omitted.

Both the paperback and the Kindle ebook can be purchased from Amazon.

January 27, 2016

January 8, 2016

BwayTunes.com names the five best cast albums of 2015. Among them is: Gypsy (2015 London Cast Recording) with Imelda Staunton.