Rethinking Theatrical Documents in Shakespeare’s England

305 Pages·2019·2.507 MB·English

by  Tiffany Stern

Rethinking
Theatrical
Documents in
Shakespeare’s
England
i
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ii
Rethinking
Theatrical
Documents in
Shakespeare’s
England
Edited by Tiffany Stern
iii
THE ARDEN SHAKESPEARE
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
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BLOOMSBURY, THE ARDEN SHAKESPEARE and the Arden Shakespeare logo are
trademarks of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
First published in Great Britain 2020
Copyright © Tiffany Stern and contributors, 2020
Tiffany Stern and contributors have asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs
and Patents Act, 1988, to be identifi ed as the authors of this work.
For legal purposes the Acknowledgements on pp. xv–xvi constitute an extension
of this copyright page.
Cover design: Charlotte Daniels
Cover image: Marks of Genius exhibition display (© Bodleian Library,
University of Oxford)
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Bloomsbury Publishing Plc does not have any control over, or responsibility for, any
third- party websites referred to or in this book. All internet addresses given in this
book were correct at the time of going to press. The author and publisher regret any
inconvenience caused if addresses have changed or sites have ceased to exist,
but can accept no responsibility for any such changes.
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ISBN: HB: 978-1-350-05134-8
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iv
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations viii
List of Contributors x
Acknowledgements xv
Introduction 1
Tiffany Stern
Part One Documents Before Performance
1 Writing a Play with Robert Daborne 17
Lucy Munro
2 A Sharers’ Repertory 33
Holger Schott Syme
3 Parts and the Playscript: Seven Questions 52
James J. Marino
4 Undocumented: Improvisation, Rehearsal, and
the Clown 68
Richard Preiss
v
vi CONTENTS
Part Two Documents of Performance
5 Rethinking Prologues and Epilogues on Page
and Stage 91
Sonia Massai and Heidi Craig
6 Title- and Scene-B oards: The Largest, Shortest
Documents 111
Matthew Steggle
7 What Is a Staged Book? Books as ‘Actors’ in the
Early Modern English Theatre 128
Sarah Wall-Randell
Part Three Documents After Performance
8 ‘Flowers for English Speaking’: Play Extracts
and Conversation 155
Andr á s Kis é ry
9 Shakespearean Extracts, Manuscript
Cataloguing, and the Misrepresentation of the
Archive 175
Laura Estill
10 Typography After Performance 193
Claire M. L. Bourne
11 Shakespeare the Balladmonger? 216
Tiffany Stern
CONTENTS vii
Part Four Lost Documents
12 Lost Documents, Absent Documents, Forged
Documents 241
Roslyn L. Knutson and David McInnis
Afterword: ‘What’s Past Is Prologue’ 260
Peter Holland
Index 273
ILLUSTRATIONS
4.1 The Book of Sir Thomas More , B.L. MS Harleian
7368, fol. 7r. By permission of the British Library. 75
5.1 Rate of publication and rate of inclusion of
Prologues and Epilogues in First Editions. 93
5.2 First Editions featuring Prologues and Epilogues,
per Type of Play. 96
6.1 Signs imagined by William Percy, superimposed
onto an image of the Blackfriars Playhouse,
Staunton, Virginia. By permission of the
American Shakespeare Center’s Blackfriars
Playhouse. 116
7.1 The Geneva New Testament (1557), B.L.
C.17.a.15. By permission of the British Library. 141
9.1 ‘Songs from Otway’s Plays’ in Peter and Oliver
Le Neve (1661–1729), and Thomas Martin
(1697–1771), Manuscript Collection ( c .mid
seventeenth century), B.L. Add MS 27406,
f. 114 v. © The British Library Board. 185
10.1 A Pleasant Conceited Comedie Called, Loues
labors lost (London: Cuthbert Burby, 1598),
A4v–B1r. By permission of the Folger
Shakespeare Library. 200
10.2 A Pleasant Conceited Comedie Called, Loues
labors lost (London: Cuthbert Burby, 1598),
E1r. By permission of the Folger Shakespeare
Library. 205
10.3 A Pleasant Conceited Comedie Called, Loues
labors lost (London: Cuthbert Burby, 1598),
E2v–E3r. By permission of the Folger
Shakespeare Library. 206
viii
ILLUSTRATIONS ix
10.4 A Pleasant Conceited Comedie Called, Loues
labors lost (London: Cuthbert Burby, 1598),
E3r. By permission of the Folger Shakespeare
Library. 207
10.5 A Pleasant Conceited Comedie Called, Loues
labors lost (London: Cuthbert Burby, 1598),
G3v–G4rr. By permission of the Folger
Shakespeare Library. 208
11.1 Anon, No- body, and some-b ody (1606), title
page. By permission of the Folger Shakespeare
Library. 225
11.2 Anon, A Ballad of the Lamentable and Tragical
History of Titus Andronicus (c. 1660), Huth
50 (69). By permission of the British Library. 228