Textual Patronage in English Drama, 1570-1640Routledge, 2017 M11 28 - 257 pages Through 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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... function in the early stages of publication by print . Manuscript and scribal culture remains viable , and many literary texts , especially poetry , continue in their coterie - bound circulation . But drama , by its nature typically ...
... function in the early stages of publication by print . Manuscript and scribal culture remains viable , and many literary texts , especially poetry , continue in their coterie - bound circulation . But drama , by its nature typically ...
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... function as "letters of commerce," to use Julie Stone Peters' term,36 they set in motion an exchange between writer and reader/patron, a social and literary exchange. Certainly in the dedications the playwright consciously seeks a ...
... function as "letters of commerce," to use Julie Stone Peters' term,36 they set in motion an exchange between writer and reader/patron, a social and literary exchange. Certainly in the dedications the playwright consciously seeks a ...
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... publishers focus on the editorial function that they have assumed and center their attention on the playtext as a material object. They occasionally engage in a kind of literary criticism ; and some take on the task of rescuing.
... publishers focus on the editorial function that they have assumed and center their attention on the playtext as a material object. They occasionally engage in a kind of literary criticism ; and some take on the task of rescuing.
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... function of the prefatory material . Churchyard offers a " commendation of courtesy , " Daniel understands the function of pageants and masques as " complements of state , " and Heywood sets out to provide what " history tells us ...
... function of the prefatory material . Churchyard offers a " commendation of courtesy , " Daniel understands the function of pageants and masques as " complements of state , " and Heywood sets out to provide what " history tells us ...
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... ) receive recognition for their patronage . The system of aristocratic patronage functions in a lively fashion at the end of the historical period being examined; it has not been supplanted by the marketplace. Instead,
... ) receive recognition for their patronage . The system of aristocratic patronage functions in a lively fashion at the end of the historical period being examined; it has not been supplanted by the marketplace. Instead,
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