Wiley-Blackwell Shakespeare's Theater: A Sourcebook

Shakespeare’s Theater: A Sourcebook brings together in one volume the most significant Elizabethan and Jacobean texts on the morality of the theater. A collection of the most significant Elizabethan and Jacobean texts on the morality of the theater. Includes attacks on the stage by moralists, defences by actors and playwrights, letters by magistrates, mayors and aldermen of London, and extracts from legislation. Demonstrates just how heated debates about the theater became in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. A general introduction and short prefaces to each piece situate the writers and debates in the literary, social, political and religious history of the time. Brings together in one volume texts that would otherwise be hard to locate. Student-friendly - uses modern spelling and includes vocabulary glosses and annotation. Review "Tanya Pollard's anthology usefully brings together in a single volume modernized, annotated selections from many writers who participated in the lively debate about the nature and morality of the theater in late 16th and early 17th century England. [...] Shakespeare's Theater: A Sourcebook is an excellent resource for students and a fine ancillary text for university-level courses on Shakespeare or English Renaissance drama." Katharine Eisaman Maus, James Branch Cabell Professor of English, University of Virginia <!--end--> "This wonderful collection of polemical documents shows early modern minds wrestling with the very concept of theatrical representation. A provocative and supremely valuable resource book." Laurie Maguire, Magdalen College, Oxford "Pollard has performed a most valuable service to Shakespearian studies and to our knowledge of the Elizabethan and Jacobean theatrical world by collecting them together in Shakespeare's Theatre: A Sourcebook. ... recommended for all libraries colecting materials in Shakespeare, the Elizabethan and Jacobean theatre, English literature, history and culture." Reference Reviews From the Inside Flap As the popularity of the theater exploded in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, so debates about its effects on audiences grew more and more heated. Shakespeare’s Theater: A Sourcebook brings together in one volume the most significant Elizabethan and Jacobean texts on the theater. They include attacks on the stage by moralists, defenses by actors and playwrights, letters by magistrates, mayors and aldermen of London, and extracts from legislation. Many of these texts are made widely available here for the first time.A general introduction and short prefaces to each piece situate the writers and debates in the literary, social, political, and religious history of the time. Students will also welcome the use of modern spelling and the inclusion of vocabulary glosses and annotation. From the Back Cover As the popularity of the theater exploded in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, so debates about its effects on audiences grew more and more heated. Shakespeare’s Theater: A Sourcebook brings together in one volume the most significant Elizabethan and Jacobean texts on the theater. They include attacks on the stage by moralists, defenses by actors and playwrights, letters by magistrates, mayors and aldermen of London, and extracts from legislation. Many of these texts are made widely available here for the first time.A general introduction and short prefaces to each piece situate the writers and debates in the literary, social, political, and religious history of the time. Students will also welcome the use of modern spelling and the inclusion of vocabulary glosses and annotation. About the Author Tanya Pollard is Assistant Professor of English at Montclair State University in New Jersey.