Textual Patronage in English Drama, 1570-1640Through an investigation of the dedications and addresses from various printed plays of the English Renaissance, the author recuperates the richness of these prefaces and connects them to the practice of patronage. The prefatory matter discussed ranges from the printer John Day's address to readers (the first of its kind) in the 1570 edition of Gorboduc to Richard Brome's dedication to William Seymour and address to readers in his 1640 play, Antipodes. The study includes discussion of prefaces in plays by Shakespeare's contemporaries as well as Shakespeare himself, among them Marston, Jonson, and Heywood. The author uses these prefaces to show that English playwrights, printers and publishers looked in two directions, toward aristocrats and toward a reading public, in order to secure status for and dissemination of dramatic texts. The author points out that dedications and addresses to readers constitute obvious signs that printers, publishers and playwrights in the period increasingly saw these dramatic texts as occupying a rightful place in the humanistic and commercial endeavor of book production. |
From inside the book
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... theater but aware of an emerging reading audience . Writers need readers . Over fifty years ago , J. W. Saunders published an essay , " The Stigma of Print , " which has governed much scholarly thinking about writers ' attitudes ...
... theater but aware of an emerging reading audience . Writers need readers . Over fifty years ago , J. W. Saunders published an essay , " The Stigma of Print , " which has governed much scholarly thinking about writers ' attitudes ...
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... stage; the stage in its turn revises that energy and returns it to the audience" (p. 4). But that social energy need not end in the theater audience at any given moment; I argue that it gains additional circulation through publication ...
... stage; the stage in its turn revises that energy and returns it to the audience" (p. 4). But that social energy need not end in the theater audience at any given moment; I argue that it gains additional circulation through publication ...
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... play might have. For example, Thomas Heywood in Rape of Lucrece addresses readers in ... theater. This document appears in all four subsequent editions, including ... audience; such patrons in turn construct the playwright's status and ...
... play might have. For example, Thomas Heywood in Rape of Lucrece addresses readers in ... theater. This document appears in all four subsequent editions, including ... audience; such patrons in turn construct the playwright's status and ...
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... theater culturally looking at each other , we can underscore their complementary and at times times oppositional nature , each experiencing growth and enduring external threat . Within the walls of theaters eager audiences gathered ...
... theater culturally looking at each other , we can underscore their complementary and at times times oppositional nature , each experiencing growth and enduring external threat . Within the walls of theaters eager audiences gathered ...
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... audience as one between producers and consumers, untrammeled by social considerations."33 The writers conclude: "The view that the economics of theater moved from a system of patronage to one of commerce follows both of those roads. For ...
... audience as one between producers and consumers, untrammeled by social considerations."33 The writers conclude: "The view that the economics of theater moved from a system of patronage to one of commerce follows both of those roads. For ...
Contents
Pageants Masques | |
Women as Patrons of Drama | |
Marston and Colleagues | |
Shakespeare and Folio | |
Thomas Heywoods Apology for Readers 16081638 | |
Textual Patronage in | |
Lenvoi | |
Index | |
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Common terms and phrases
acknowledges actor's voice actors address readers address to readers Apology authorship Beaumont Ben Jonson Blount Brome Cambridge University Press Chapman Churchyard comedy Countess Countess of Bedford court cultural dedications and addresses discussion dramatic texts dramatists Earl edition English entertainment epistle dedicatory favor Fletcher Folio function genre hath Heminge and Condell Henry Herbert brothers honor insists Jacobean James Shirley John Ford John Marston Jones Jonson King's King's Men Lady literary Loewenstein London Lord Chamberlain Marston masque Massinger mayor Middleton Moseley noble construction offers pageant paratexts patrons Pembroke performance Philip Massinger Philotas play playhouse playtexts playwright poems poet preface prefatory documents prefatory material printed text printers and publishers publication quarto Queen quotations reading refers Renaissance Richard Robert Samuel Daniel seek Sejanus Shakespeare system of patronage textual economy textual patronage theater audiences theatrical Thomas Dekker Thomas Heywood Thomas Middleton Tragedy underscores Volpone Webster William women writes