Magic on the Early English Stage

by Philip Butterworth

• ISBN13: 9780521153065
• ISBN10: 0521153069
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-06-10
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Magic on the Early English Stage investigates the performance of magical tricks, illusions, effects and their staged appearance in the medieval and early English theatre. Performers who created such magic were not known as conjurors, as we might refer to them today, but as jugglers. Records concerning jugglers on the medieval stage have been hitherto misunderstood or misapplied. These references to jugglers are re-examined in the light of discussions of 'feats of activity' that also include tumbling, vaulting and 'dancing on the rope'; appearances and disappearances of the 'Now you see it, now you don't' variety; and stage versions of these concepts; magic through sound in terms of ventriloquy and sound through pipes; mechanical images and puppets; and stage tricks. Information that has remained dormant since original publication is discussed in relation to jugglers such as Thomas Brandon, the King's Juggler, and William Vincent, alias 'Hocus Pocus'.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Jugglers: the creators of magic

Feats of activity: juggling, tumbling and dancing on the rope

Conveyance and confederacy

Appearances and disappearances

Magic through sound

Mechanical images, automata, puppets and motions

Substitution

Stage tricks

Terminology

Edward Melton's Text

Wily Beguiled (1606)

Beggars' Bush (1622)

The Knave in Graine (1640)

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.