The Shoemaker's Holiday
Assigned by 1 of the 9 reading lists, catalogue entry only
- Written
- 1599
- Era
- Renaissance
- Form
- Comedy
- Language
- English
- Length
- Short · 100 ppunder 120 pages
- Difficulty
- Moderate2 of 5 for a first-year reader
We recommendThe Shoemaker's HolidayBloomsbury Arden Shakespeare, 2008The New Mermaids edition, edited by Jonathan Gil Harris, is the standard annotated text.
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A citizen comedy first acted by the Admiral's Men in 1599. The gentleman Rowland Lacy, forbidden to marry the citizen's daughter Rose, deserts the army for France and hides as a Dutch shoemaker in the workshop of Simon Eyre. Eyre, a boisterous master craftsman, rises through a lucky cargo to become Lord Mayor of London. A second plot follows the journeyman Ralph, pressed into the war and returned lame to find his wife about to remarry. The play ends with a feast for the shoemakers and the king pardoning Lacy.
No reading guide yet
The catalogue entry above is complete: the dates, the form, the themes and every program that assigns The Shoemaker's Holiday are verified against each program's published list.
What is missing is the part that takes real work: the summary, the key passages, and a recommended translation. The edition named below is the one most programs assign, so the buy links are useful already.
