Clowning and Authorship in Early Modern Theatre

List of contents

Introduction: the play is not the thing; 1. What audiences did; 2. Send in the clown; 3. Wiring Richard Tarlton; 4. Nobody's business; 5. Private practice; Epilogue: the principal verb.

About the author

Richard Preiss is Associate Professor of English at the University of Utah, where he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on Shakespeare, early modern drama, and Renaissance literature. He has edited The Tempest: Shakespeare in Performance (2008), and his essays have appeared in publications including Renaissance Drama, Shakespeare Yearbook, and From Performance to Print in Shakespeare's England (2005). He is also a contributor to the forthcoming collections The Cambridge Guide to the Worlds of Shakespeare and Early Modern Theatricality.

Summary

Richard Preiss presents a lively and provocative study of how the early modern stage clown defined - and changed - theatrical experience. Recovering the interactive entertainments with which comedians including Richard Tarlton, Will Kemp and Robert Armin engaged audiences, he draws new conclusions about how early modern theatre negotiated its own textuality.

Product details

• Authors: Richard Preiss, Richard (University of Utah) Preiss, Preiss Richard
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 30.06.2022
• EAN: 9781108438773
• ISBN: 978-1-108-43877-3
• No. of pages: 297
• Subjects: Fiction > Poetry, drama; Humanities, art, music > Art > Theatre, ballet; English, Theatre Studies, Literary studies: classical, early & medieval, Literary studies: c 1600 to c 1800, Literary studies: ancient, classical and medieval, Shakespeare Studies & Criticism, Literary studies: plays and playwrights, Relating to Shakespeare / Shakespearean