Common Conditions [?1576]: An Excellent and Pleasant Comedy, Termed After the Name of the Vice, Common Conditions (Malone Society Reprints)

This volume contains a photofacsimile edition of the only known surviving copy of the first quarto edition of the anonymous Elizabethan play, Common Conditions (1576). As the volume's brief introduction shows, this quarto is of outstanding scholarly interest for a number of reasons. The play itself is an important instance of the transition from the late medieval morality play toward the emergent early modern theatrical genres of comedy and romance. The surviving copy of the first quarto, now owned by the Elizabethan Club at Yale University, was long believed lost; it offers the only complete available text of the play. Furthermore, this quarto contains interesting annotations and revisions in an early modern hand, which are clearly visible in the facsimile. This volume will thus be of interest to students of early modern drama, of bibliography and of book ownership and reading.

Roberta Barker is at Assistant Professor of Theatre and Early Modern Studies, Dalhousie University.