Performances at Court in the Age of Shakespeare

A fascinating insight into court entertainment - encompassing dance, music and performance - in the age of Shakespeare.

Sophie Chiari (Edited by), John Mucciolo (Edited by)

9781108708180, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 30 September 2021

294 pages, 2 b/w illus. 1 table
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.6 cm, 0.4 kg

'The editors' stated goal with this volume is 'to show that the expansion of early modern commercial playhouses and the rise of lavishly elaborated courtly shows were not isolated events, but interdependent phenomena, which enables the birth of proto-capitalist, public enterprises'. The breadth and depth of the collection certainly underscore this intent, and the text is successful as well in demonstrating the ways Tudor and Stuart drama was both textual and visual, both diplomatic and aesthetic. As a contribution to the study of early modern performance, the culture of court performance, and the difference between court and public performance, this is a valuable new collection of knowledge.' Jess Hamlet, Early Theatre Review

Even though Shakespeare openly dramatizes aristocratic shows in his own plays, the circumstances of early modern performance at court have received relatively little critical attention. With so much written on the playwright's wide and multi-layered audiences, the entertainment of the court itself has too long been dismissed as a secondary issue. This book aims to shed fresh light on the multiple aspects of Shakespearean performances at the Elizabethan and early Stuart courts, considering all forms of drama, music, dance and other entertainment. Taking the specific scenic environment and material conditions of early modern performance into account, the chapters examine both real and dramatized court shows in order to break ground for new avenues of thought. The volume considers how early modern court shows shaped dramatic writing and what they tell us of the aesthetics and politics of the Tudor and Stuart regimes.

General introduction Sophie Chiari and John Mucciolo
Part I. Elizabethan Court Theatre: 1. Palamon and Arcite: early Elizabethan court theatre Richard Dutton
2. Revels at the court of Elizabeth I, 1594–1603 W. R. Streitberger
3. Multiple Marlowe: Doctor Faustus and court performance Roy Eriksen
4. The court theatre response to the public theatre debate in a Midsummer Night's Dream Janna Segal
Part II. The Jacobean Tradition: 5. Masculine dreams: Henry V and the Jacobean politics of court performance Murat Ö?ütcü
6. Jacobean royal premieres? Othello and Measure for Measure at Whitehall in 1604 Jason Lawrence
7. Pericles: a performance, a letter (1619) David M. Bergeron
8. 'The old name is fresh about me': architectural mimesis and court spaces in All is True Catherine Clifford
Part III. Reassessing the Stuart Masque: 9. Dancing at court: 'the art that all arts doe approve' Anne Daye
10. The Tempest and the Jonsonian masque Martin Butler
11. Noble masquing at the Stuart court Leeds Barroll
12. 'Animated porcelain of the court': Stuart masquers as magical automata Agnieszka ?ukowska
Part IV. The Material Conditions of Performances at Court: 13. How did they do it? Problems of staging plays at court William B. Long
14. The Jacobean banqueting house as a performance space John H. Astington
15. Musicians at court Chantal Schütz
16. Painted cloths and the making of Whitehall's playing space
1611–12 Rebecca Olson
Index.

Subject Areas: Shakespeare plays [DDS], Plays, playscripts [DD], Theatre direction & production [ANF], Theatre: individual actors & directors [ANB], Theatre studies [AN]