Region, Religion and Patronage Lancastrian Shakespeare

by Dutton, Richard; Wilson, Richard; Findlay, Alison

• ISBN13: 9780719063688
• ISBN10: 071906368X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2004-02-19
• Publisher: Manchester University Press

Summary

This groundbreaking book uses the possibility that Shakespeare began his theatrical career in Lancashire to open up a range of new contexts for reading the plays, and introduces readers to the non-metropolitan theater spaces which formed a vital part of early modern dramatic activity. Essays give a detailed picture of the contexts in which the apprentice dramatist would have worked, providing new insights into regional performance, touring theatre, the patronage of the Earls of Derby, and the purpose-built theater at Prescot.

Author Biography

Richard Dutton is Professor of English Literature Alison Gail Findlay is Senior Lecturer in English Literature and Richard Wilson is Professor of Renaissance Literature in the Department of English, all at the University of Lancaster.

Table of Contents

Illustrations	vii
List of contributors	ix
Acknowledgements	xiii
1 Introduction
Alison Findlay and Richard Dutton	1	(31)
2 'The useless dearness of the diamond': patronage theatre and households
Suzanne Westfall	32	(18)
3 The management of mirth: Shakespeare via Bourdieu
Richard Wilson	50	(18)
4 Between idolatry and astrology: modes of temporal repetition in Romeo and Juliet
Philippa Berry	68	(16)
5 Country house, Catholicity and the crypt(ic) in Twelfth Night
Anne Lecercle	84	(17)
6 Recusancy, festivity and community: the Simpsons at Gowlthwaite Hall
Phebe Jensen	101	(20)
7 Suicide at the Elephant and Castle, or did the lady vanish? Alternative endings for early modern women writers
Marion Wynne-Davies	121	(22)
8 Shakespeare and Lancaster
Richard Dutton	143	(26)
9 The Shireburnes of Stonyhurst: memory and survival in a Lancashire Catholic recusant family
John Callow and Michael Mullett	169	(17)
10 Lancashire, Shakespeare and the construction of cultural neighbourhoods in sixteenth-century England
Mary A. Blackstone	186	(19)
11 A family tradition: dramatic patronage by the Earls of Derby
Sally-Beth MacLean	205	(22)
12 The playhouse at Prescot and the 1592-94 Plague
David George	227	(16)
13 Regional performance in Shakespeare's time
Peter Greenfield	243	(10)
Index	253