Localizing Caroline Drama Politics and Economics of the Early Modern English Stage, 1625-1642

This collection of original essays redefines the plays and theatrical culture of the years 1625 through 1642 as something more than simply post-Shakespearean or pre-Revolutionary in character. Through local readings of the texts and institutions of the Caroline theater, leading scholars reveal the drama's intriguing mixture of political engagement, religious controversy, urbane cosmopolitanism, and commercial ingenuity. Spanning locations both real and imagined - from London to Dublin to Tunis; from the Salisbury Court theater to the fantastic landscapes of Inigo Jones - the collection as a whole urges us to recalibrate our histories of seventeenth-century drama to account for the unprecedented innovations of the Caroline period.

Adam Zucker is Assistant Professor of Early Modern literature at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.  He has published on Ben Jonson and on the Caroline playwrights Richard Brome and Thomas Nabbes. Alan B. Farmer is Assistant Professor of English at The Ohio State University.  He has published on printed drama in early modern England, Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, and the Caroline news trade. 

Introduction * Politics and Commerce in 1630s Theater--Kate McLuskie * Reading/Genres: Mid-Caroline Masques--Lauren Shohet * Canons and Classics: Publishing Drama in Caroline England--Alan Farmer & Zachary Lesser * Commercial Competition in the 1630s: The Case of the Salisbury Court--Martin Butler * The St. Werburgh Street Theatre, Dublin--Richard Dutton * Dancing Masters and the Production of Cosmopolitan Bodies in Caroline Town Comedy--Jean E. Howard * A Beast So Blurred: The Monstrous Favorite in Caroline Drama--Mario DiGangi * The Cultural Geography of Richard Brome--Julie Sanders * The Turks, Caroline Poltiics, and Philip Massinger's The Renegado--Benedict S. Robinson Introduction * Politics and Commerce in 1630s Theater--Kate McLuskie * Reading/Genres: Mid-Caroline Masques--Lauren Shohet * Canons and Classics: Publishing Drama in Caroline England--Alan Farmer & Zachary Lesser * Commercial Competition in the 1630s: The Case of the Salisbury Court--Martin Butler * The St. Werburgh Street Theatre, Dublin--Richard Dutton * Dancing Masters and the Production of Cosmopolitan Bodies in Caroline Town Comedy--Jean E. Howard * A Beast So Blurred: The Monstrous Favorite in Caroline Drama--Mario DiGangi * The Cultural Geography of Richard Brome--Julie Sanders * The Turks, Caroline Poltiics, and Philip Massinger's The Renegado--Benedict S. Robinson