Documents of performance in early modern England
By: Tiffany Stern.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2009
Place of publication: Cambridge, UK; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 362
ISBN-13: 9780521842372
Subjects: English drama -- Early modern and Elizabethan, 1500-1600 -- Criticism, Textual; English drama -- 17th century -- Criticism, Textual; Theater -- Production and direction -- England -- History -- 16th century; Theater -- Production and direction -- England -- History -- 17th century
Description: As well as 'play-makers' and 'poets', playwrights of the early modern period were known as 'play-patchers' because their texts were made from separate documents. This book is the first to consider all the papers created by authors and theatres by the time of the opening performance, recovering types of script not previously known to have existed. With chapters on plot-scenarios, arguments, playbills, prologues and epilogues, songs, staged scrolls, backstage-plots and parts, it shows how textually distinct production was from any single unified book. And, as performance documents were easily lost, relegated or reused, the story of a play's patchy creation also becomes the story of its co-authorship, cuts, revisions and additions. Using a large body of fresh evidence, Documents of Performance in Early Modern England brings a wholly new reading to printed and manuscript playbooks of the Shakespearean period, redefining what a play, and what a playwright, actually is. Presents a large quantity of fresh research revealing new documents never written about before, demanding a rethinking of performance and theatre history ; The fullest account of documents to date, with new information about their circulation and onstage manifestation ; Brings together the disparate fields of theatre history, manuscript studies and bibliography, showing the overlaps between them. Publisher's website.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 316-345) and index.