Overview

The records of dramatic performances at the Inns of Court, drawn from a variety of manuscript and printed sources, reveal a rich history of revels, plays, masques and secular music. London's four Inns of Court (Gray's Inn, Lincoln's Inn, and the Inner and the Middle Temple) served, probably from the fourteenth century, as nurseries not only of common law and lawyers, but of the social arts of music and dancing, and of the mimetic arts of comedy, tragedy, and the masque. Their denizens composed and acted in their own plays, especially in the 1560s under Elizabeth I, and performed in masques composed by professional playwrights in the Jacobean period. This three-volume edition of dramatic records surviving from the Inns of Court collection includes material from manuscripts and printed books from the archives and libraries of all four Inns, as well as fromThe National Archives, the British Library, the Folger Shakespeare Library and other repositories, covering over 200 years from 1407 to the closing of the theatres in 1642. Of particular note are account entries from the beginningof the seventeenth century which situate performances of Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors (1594) and Twelfth Night (1602) in the context of annual visits to the Inns of Court by professional playing companies, such as(after 1603) the king's men. The Introduction provides a survey of Christmas entertainment supervised by Inns of Court Masters of the Revels and Christmas Princes, including minstrels, a lion-tamer, musicians, disguisings, plays, masques, and even a puppet-show. The illustrations (ground-plans and plates) offer evidence of the original performance conditions for Inns of Court plays and masques. Alan H. Nelson is Professor of English Emeritusat the University of California, Berkeley; the late John R. Elliott Jr was Professor of English at Syracuse University.

Full Product Details

Author:   Alan H. Nelson (Author) ,  John R. Elliott, Jr
Publisher:   Boydell & Brewer Ltd
Imprint:   D.S. Brewer
Dimensions:   Width: 16.60cm , Height: 10.20cm , Length: 24.70cm
Weight:   2.988kg
ISBN:  

9781843842590

ISBN 10:   1843842599
Pages:   1184
Publication Date:   20 January 2011
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Out of Print
Availability:   In Print  
Limited stock is available. It will be ordered for you and shipped pending supplier's limited stock.

Table of Contents

Volume 1 Introduction Select Bibliography Maps The Records Volume 2 Appendix 1: Christmas Prince Revels Appendix 2: Masque Texts Appendix 3: Speeches and Barriers Appendix 4: Eyewitness Accounts Appendix 5: Royal and Civic Records Appendix 6: Bibliography of Inns of Court Entertainment Appendix 7: Cast Lists Appendix 8: Chronological List of Inns of Court Performances Appendix 9: Inner Temple Instructions for the Master of the Revels Appendix 10: William Prynne's Discourse against Revels Appendix 11: Dugdale's Origines Juridiciales Appendix 12: Bacon's Essay on Masques and Triumphs Appendix 13: Music and Dance at the Inns of Court Appendix 14: Inns of Court Gentlemen as Playgoers Appendix 15: Inns of Court Playwrights Appendix 16: Saints' Days and Festivals Volume 3 Translations Endnotes Glossaries Indexes

Reviews

(O)ffers instructors, particularly of undergraduate classes, a fresh, innovative vehicle for introducing their students to the rich and varied literary, cultural, and religious texts of the early modern period. SIXTEENTH CENTURY JOURNAL (S)ets a new standard. It is difficult to imagine further studies on the Inns that are not significantly indebted to the research in these volumes. COMPARATIVE DRAMA REED is a modern scholarly miracle, and may even be a modern political miracle. (...) REED has become a useful tool not only for students of literature, drama, and performance generally but also for social historians and many others. (...) the REED Inns of Court volumes provide us with 1,064 pages of valuable information and interpretation in an orderly and clear fashion. Students working in this period could hardly ask for more. NOTES AND QUERIES (A) useful resource for scholars of early modern English social history, legal history, and drama. RENAISSANCE QUARTERLY (T)he collection is a treasure trove of material for students of dramatic and ceremonial culture in medieval and early modern London. YEARS WORK IN ENGLISH STUDIES

(T)he collection is a treasure trove of material for students of dramatic and ceremonial culture in medieval and early modern London. YEARS WORK IN ENGLISH STUDIES

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