This critical edition contains an introductory essay evaluating these plays in terms of both literary history and their own merits as lively works for the stage. It includes the complete text of each play, accompanied by explanatory notes glossing obsolete or dialectal words and phrases, and listing only important substantive variants among the authoritative early editions. Also contains appendices for each play giving brief but thorough essays on authorship, sources, stage history, textual history, and music to one song.

Reproduction of the original: Character Sketches of Romance, Fiction and the Drama by E. Cobham Brewer

Up until now, facts about theatrical rehearsal have been considered irrecoverable. But in this groundbreaking new study, Tiffany Stern gathers together two centuries' worth of historical material which shows how actors received and responded to their parts, and how rehearsal affected thecreation and revision of plays. Plotting theatrical change over time, from the mid-sixteenth to the late eighteenth century, this book will revolutionize the fields of textual and theatre history alike.