The diary of Philip Henslowe, owner of the Rose Theatre in London during the 1590s, remains the most valuable source of information about the workings of the Elizabethan public theatres. Discussions of theatres and drama in the age of Shakespeare routinely refer to Henslowe, whose 'diary' touches on every aspect of the day-to-day operations of the Rose and the companies of actors, especially the Admiral's Men. The diary preserves the account-book of an Elizabethan theatre owner who was also the father-in-law of the leading actor, Edward Alleyn, and contains many miscellaneous and personal entries. The first edition of Henslowe's Diary, published in 1961, has long been out of print. It provides a thorough introduction to the manuscript, a full transcription of the document itself and several helpful appendices and indexes. For this second edition one of the original editors, R. A. Foakes, has added a new preface and reading list.

A thorough analysis of Philip Henslowe's diary which provides a unique source of information on Elizabethan repertory theatre.

Philip Henslowe's Rose was Elizabethan London's first South Bank playhouse. This book sets the background of a working theatre against which the plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries can be understood.

This volume forms part of the 5 volume set Early English Stages 1300-1660. This set examines the history of the development of dramatic spectacle and stage convention in England from the beginning of the fourteenth century to 1660.

This book presents new evidence about the ways in which English Renaissance 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 universally argued by scholars - but circular. 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 much new information and case studies, and is a fascinating contribution to the fields of Shakespeare studies, English Renaissance drama studies, manuscript studies, textual study and bibliography and theatre history.

Stages of Loss supplies an original and deeply researched account of travel and festivity in early modern Europe, complicating, revising, and sometimes entirely rewriting received accounts of the emergence and development of professional theatre. It offers a history of English actors travelling and performing abroad in early modern Europe, and Germany in particular, during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. These players, known as English Comedians, were among the first professional actors to perform in central and northern European courts and cities. The vital contributions made by them to the development of a European theatre institution have long been neglected owing to the pre-eminence of national theatre histories and the difficulty of researching an inherently evanescent phenomenon across large distances. These contributions are here introduced in their proper contexts for the first time. Stages of Loss explores connections real and perceived between diminishments of national value and the material wealth transported by itinerant players; representations of loss, waste, and profligacy within the drama they performed; and the extent to which theatrical practice and the process of canonization have led to archival and interpretive losses in theatre history. Situating the English Comedians in a variety of economic, social, religious, and political contexts, it explores trends and continuities in the reception of their itinerant theatre, showing how their incorporation into modern theatre history has been shaped by derogatory assessments of travelling theatre and itinerant people in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Stages of Loss reveals that the Western theatre institution took shape partly as a means of accommodating, controlling, evaluating, and concealing the work of migrant strangers.