Reprints and Revivals of Renaissance Drama

Studies of early modern English drama in print and performance have often prioritized – or even fetishized – first editions and first performances. Challenging ingrained assumptions about chronology, this collection focuses critical attention on the various ways that Renaissance drama was repeated and renewed. Ranging widely across the period, from the 1580s to the early 1700s, the chapters examine canonical plays and authors-including Shakespeare and Ben Jonson-outside of the contexts in which they are ordinarily viewed. The chapters also demonstrates the significance of texts, authors, and forms of evidence that have been critically neglected, from lost plays and music manuscripts to playgoers' diaries and multi-author 'nonce' anthologies. As a whole, the collection opens up new areas of study and offers fresh perspectives on questions of temporality, commerce, aesthetics, agency, and canon-formation.

Eoin Price is Lecturer in English Literature, 1500–1650 at the University of Edinburgh. He is the author of 'Public' and 'Private' Playhouses in Renaissance England (2015). He won the 2020 Calvin and Rose G. Hoffman Prize for Distinguished Publication on Christopher Marlowe.

Harry Newman is Senior Lecturer in Shakespeare and Early Modern Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London. He is the author of Impressive Shakespeare: Identity, Authority and the Imprint in Shakespearean Drama (2019; shortlisted for University English Book Prize), and editor of 'Character Beyond Shakespeare' (special issue, Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies 21.2, 2021).