Lost Plays of Shakespeare's Age

Early modern legal records reveal tantalising traces of long-lost early modern plays, entertainments and dramatic libels.

Charles Jasper Sisson (Author)

9781108002431, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 20 July 2009

252 pages, 4 b/w illus.
21.6 x 14 x 1.5 cm, 0.33 kg

C. J. Sisson (1885–1966) was Lord Northcliffe Professor of Modern English Literature in the University of London. His main research interest was Shakespeare, but in this study, first published in 1936, he explores what legal records can tell us about lost early modern plays and entertainments. The Court of Star Chamber prosecuted a number of offences against moral order and frequently took action against the dramatic representation of sedition and libel. Its records often provide the only evidence of Tudor plays and entertainments never printed and lost in manuscript. Sisson explores several cases in detail, identifying the people who filed complaints against libel as well as exploring all possible evidence about what the plays contained. Sisson's study remains of value as the first to uncover archival information about lost works of Chapman, Dekker, Ford and Webster as well as anonymous jigs, verse satires and libels.

Preface
1. Introductory
2. Plays from the London stage
3. The jig
4. The May Game
5. The libel proper
Appendices
Index.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: general [DSB]