Dramatists and their Manuscripts in the Age of Shakespeare, Jonson, Middleton and Heywood - Authorship, authority and the playhouse

Sep 18, 2026

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Dramatists and their Manuscripts in the Age of Shakespeare, Jonson, Middleton and Heywood presents manuscript- and archival-based evidence on how early modern playwrights composed and circulated their texts for theatrical audiences. Grace Ioppolo argues transmission was circular rather than linear: authors and texts returned to one another across stages after composition. The book uses extant dramatic manuscripts, theatre records, contracts, memoirs, receipts, and rehearsal-and-postperformance materials to show authorship as an ongoing process shaped by collaboration among playwrights and theatre colleagues.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

FormatPDF

Pages229

Reading Time5 h 53 min

AccessFree to download

Contents

Introduction

Notes

Select bibliography

Index

Dramatists and their Manuscripts in the Age of Shakespeare, Jonson, Middleton and Heywood This book presents new evidence drawn from manuscript and archival sources about the ways in which early modern dramatists such as William Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Thomas Heywood, John Fletcher and Thomas Middleton composed their plays and the degree to which they participated in the dissemination of their texts to theatrical audiences. Grace Ioppolo argues that the path of the transmission of the text was not linear, from author to censor to playhouse to audience—as has been routinely argued by scholars—but circular. Authors returned to their texts, or texts were returned to their authors, at any or all stages after composition. The reunion of authors and their texts demonstrates that early modern dramatists collaborated in various ways and degrees in the theatrical production and performance of their plays, and that for early modern dramatists and their theatrical colleagues, authorship was a continual process, not a determinate action. Extant dramatic manuscripts, theatre records and accounts, as well as authorial contracts, memoirs, receipts and other archival evidence, are used to prove that the text returned to the author at various stages, including during rehearsal and after performance. This monograph provides new information and case studies, and will be a fascinating contribution to the fields of Shakespeare studies, early modern drama studies, manuscript studies, textual study and bibliography and theatre history. Grace Ioppolo is Reader in English and American Literature at the University of Reading, UK. Routledge studies in Renaissance literature and culture 1 Stillness in Motion in the Seventeenth-Century Theatre P.A.Skantze 2 The Production of Popular Culture by Shakespeare, Spenser and Jonson Mary Ellen Lamb 3 Forgetting in Early Modern English Literature and Culture Lethe’s legacies Edited by Christopher Ivic and Grant Williams 4 Luce Irigaray and Premodern Culture Thresholds of history Edited by Theresa Krier and Elizabeth D.Harvey 5 Writing, Geometry and Space in Seventeenth-Century England and America Circles in the sand Jess Edwards 6 Dramatists and their Manuscripts in the Age of Shakespeare, Jonson, Middleton and Heywood Authorship, authority and the playhouse Grace Ioppolo Dramatists and their Manuscripts in the Age of Shakespeare, Jonson, Middleton and Heywood Authorship, authority and the playhouse Grace Ioppolo LONDON AND NEW YORK First published 2006 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2006. To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of [eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk](eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk). © 2006 Grace Ioppolo All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN 0-203-44942-8 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-69249-7 (Adobe eReader Format) ISBN 0-415-33965-0 (Print Edition) For Peter Beal Contents List of figures viii Acknowledgements x Introduction 1 1 ‘As good a play for yr publiqe howse as euer was playd’: dramatists and 10 authorship 2 ‘You give them authority to play’: dramatists and authority 41 3

FAQs

What is the central argument about how texts circulated to playhouse audiences?

The transmission of dramatic texts was not linear but circular, with authors returning to their manuscripts or texts returning to their authors at multiple stages after composition.

Which kinds of sources does the book use to support its claims?

It draws on extant dramatic manuscripts, theatre records and accounts, and archival materials such as authorial contracts, memoirs, receipts, and related evidence.

How does the book describe authorship in early modern theatrical production?

Authorship is presented as a continual process rather than a fixed action, reflecting collaboration and varying degrees of participation by dramatists and theatrical colleagues.

Sep 18, 2026

Upload by Hazel