Renaissance Drama   It all sounds so familiar — those conventions of Renaissance drama. Crazy edicts are decreed — comedy ensues. Wenches gussy up as duchesses, hayseeds parade around like dukes, all in good fun — and what a hoot to mock the nabobs. Cross- dressing! Boys playing women! Wayward nuns, parliaments of fools! The histories toss in some speeches, some patriotic bluster and what it leads to. But in those days, revenge tragedies took the prize — rough justice dished out at swordpoint, plays within plays, prophecies, poison served in golden cups, act V bloodbaths. The groundlings ate it up.     © Michael Fleming Putney, Vermont April 2026