Parnassus plays
Parnassus plays,the collective name for three anonymous plays, The Pilgrimage to Parnassus, The First Part of the Return from Parnassus, and The Second Part of the Return from Parnassus, written between 1598 and 1602 and performed at St John's College, Cambridge. The theme is several young scholars' attempts to find occupations, and in the final part two of them try to join the Chamberlain's Men. During their audition, William Kempe disparages university plays and university men, in particular Jonson, to whom Shakespeare has given ‘a purge that made him beray his credit’, which suggests that Shakespeare too indulged in personal satire. In First Part of the Return from Parnassus are disparaging allusions to Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece.
Gabriel Egan
Bibliography
Anon., The Three Parnassus Plays (1598–1601), ed. J. B. Leishman (1949)
Glatzer, Paula, The...
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