Region, Religion and Patronage Lancastrian Shakespeare

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

• ISBN13: 9780719063695
• ISBN10: 0719063698
• Format: Paperback
• 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	p. vii
List of contributors	p. ix
Acknowledgements	p. xiii
Introduction	p. 1
'The useless dearness of the diamond': patronage theatre and households	p. 32
The management of mirth: Shakespeare via Bourdieu	p. 50
Between idolatry and astrology: modes of temporal repetition in Romeo and Juliet	p. 68
Country house, Catholicity and the crypt(ic) in Twelfth Night	p. 84
Recusancy, festivity and community: the Simpsons at Gowlthwaite Hall	p. 101
Suicide at the Elephant and Castle, or did the lady vanish? Alternative endings for early modern women writers	p. 121
Shakespeare and Lancaster	p. 143
The Shireburnes of Stonyhurst: memory and survival in a Lancashire Catholic recusant family	p. 169
Lancashire, Shakespeare and the construction of cultural neighbourhoods in sixteenth-century England	p. 186
A family tradition: dramatic patronage by the Earls of Derby	p. 205
The playhouse at Prescot and the 1592-94 plague	p. 227
Regional performance in Shakespeare's time	p. 243
Index	p. 253
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