About the Author:
Richard Rowland is Senior Lecturer in Drama and English, University of York, UK.
Review:
'Thomas Heywood's Theatre, 1599-1639 fits a fascinating piece into the emerging picture of the "complete" early modern theatre. Rowland beds interpretation firmly in cultural, historical, and textual recuperation and analysis. He lets us know the weight and value of things in their time. He connects things to people and people to each other. He offers genealogies of circumstance and familiarity that vastly enrich our reading of the plays. He puts the authentic stink of London and her citizens into our nostrils. Rowland's writing about Heywood makes you want to read Heywood - and even more, to see Heywood restored to our theatre.' Carol Chillington Rutter, University of Warwick, UK 'Richard Rowland's lively study of Heywood is equally evocative of early modern London, demonstrating how the burgeoning self-awareness of the city and its citizens infused the drama appearing on its stages. The specificity of location in Edward IV is more than incidental to the drama, and owes much to the contemporary publication of John Stow's Survey of London which helped to make topographical reference both safe and widely understood. Rowland further shows how Heywood explores another key component of early modern London society, the nexus of home, house and household. Here the emphasis is spatial rather than topographical, but the difficulties and dangers of metropolitan marriage and householding emerge clearly. Rowland argues that our appreciation of the complexity and power of Heywood's drama gains greatly from its performance on stage, but this book will make at least an equal contribution to that end.' Vanessa Harding, Birkbeck, University of London, UK '...a work of fine scholarship... a significant and welcome achievement guiding us to reappraise a playwriting career that has too often been neglected...' Times Literary Supplement '... this excellent monograph is evidence of the importance of continuing scholarly work on this neglected playwright. It makes a substantial contribution to knowledge about Heywood and his drama as well as to Early Modern attitudes to geographical and domestic spaces, trade and translation. Above all, it offers an exceptional insight into changing theatrical cultures in England between 1599 and 1639...' Parergon 'This is a mature and thorough monograph... This book certainly makes a convincing case for the significance not only of Thomas Heywood but also of Richard Rowland to early modern theatre studies. It contributes to an emerging body of work on the Queen's Men and the Red Bull, the company's Clerkenwell home and it suggests that Heywood, like Middleton, is ripe for rediscovery by scholars and practitioners alike.' Review of English Studies 'Throughout this thorough study, Rowland offers valuable insights into particular plays as both texts and performance events. ...a compelling case for Heywood's dramaturgical and ideological purposefulness and consistency.' Shakespeare Bulletin 'The book is permeated throughout by a truly impressive erudition, with regard both to primary and secondary material. ...[Rowland's] book will undoubtedly become indispensable reading for Heywood scholars. ... such a rich study will certainly prompt further consideration of the Red Bull dramatist, and it is not the least of Rowland's achievements that he has made it impossible, from now on, not to take Heywood seriously.' Renaissance Quarterly
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