The Elizabethan Stage 4-volume set

Volume IV of a reissue of the E. K. Chambers's seminal four-volume account of the private, public, and court stages, together with other forms of drama and spectacle surviving from earlier times, from the beginning of the reign of Elizabeth until the death of Shakespeare. Haled in its day as a comprehensive compendium of 'practically all the discoverable evidence upon the various parts of the subject, collected, weighed, sorted, classified and built up with immense care into a logical and beautiful structure' (New Statesman), the work is still much consulted by today's scholars and historians. From the author's Preface: 'My First Book is devoted to a description, perhaps disproportionate, of the Elizabethan Court, and of the ramifications in pageant and progress, tilt and mask, of that instinct for spectacular mimesis, which the Renaissance inherited from the Middle Ages, and of which the drama is itself the most important manifestation. The Second Book gives an account of the settlement of the players in London, of their conflict, backed by the Court, with the tendencies of Puritanism, and of the place which they ultimately found in the monarchical polity. To the Third and Fourth belong the more pedestrian task of following in detail the fortunes of the individual playing companies and the individual theatres, with such fullness as the available records permit. The Fifth deals with the surviving plays, not in their literary aspect, which lies outside my plan, but as documents helping to throw light upon the history of the institution which produced them.'

VOLUME IBook I: The CourtI. ELIZABETH AND JAMESII. THE ROYAL HOUSEHOLDIII. THE REVELS OFFICEIV. PAGEANTRYV. THE MASKVI. THE MASK (continued)VII. THE COURT PLAYBook II: The Control of the StageVIII. HUMANISM AND PURITANISMIX. THE STRUGGLE OF COURT AND CITYX. THE ACTOR'S QUALITYXI. THE ACTOR'S ECONOMICSVOLUME IIBook III: The CompaniesXII. INTRODUCTION: THE BOY COMPANIESXIII. THE ADULT COMPANIESXIV. INTERNATIONAL COMPANIESXV. ACTORSBook IV: The Play-housesXVI. INTRODUCTION: THE PLAY-HOUSESXVII. THE PRIVATE THEATRESXVIII. THE STRUCTURE AND CONDUCT OF THEATRESVOLUME IIIXIX. STAGING AT COURTXX. STAGING IN THE THEATRES: SIXTEENTH CENTURYXXI. STAGING IN THE THEATRES: SEVENTEENTH CENTURYBook V: Plays and PlaywrightsXXII. THE PRINTING OF PLAYSXXIII. PLAYWRIGHTSVOLUME IVXXIV. ANONYMOUS WORKAPPENDICESINDEXES: PERSONS, PLAYS, PLACES, SUBJECTS