Playbooks and their Readers in Early Modern England

This book is the first comprehensive examination of commercial drama as a reading genre in early modern England. Focusing on the dominant format of the single-play quarto playbook, it juxtaposes analysis of print and manuscript evidence to present a detailed picture of how plays were read, why, and by whom.

Autorentext

Hannah August is Senior Lecturer in English at Massey University in New Zealand.

Inhalt

Introduction

1 Who read plays?

2 Why read plays?

3 How were plays read? Part One: Extractive reading

4 How were plays read? Part Two: Using, marking, annotating

Conclusion

Appendix: Professional play quartos with Horatian title page mottoes, 1598-1659