‘Public’ and ‘Private’ Playhouses in Renaissance England: The Politics of Publication

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-x

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Eoin Price

   Pages 1-11

3. ‘Public’, ‘Private’ and ‘Common’ Stages, 1559–1600

   • Eoin Price

   Pages 12-28

4. The Emergence of the ‘Private’ Theatres, 1600–1625

   • Eoin Price

   Pages 29-47

5. ‘Private’ and ‘Public’ Indoor Theatres, 1625–1640

   • Eoin Price

   Pages 48-65

6. Epilogue: Privacy and Drama, 1640–1660

   • Eoin Price

   Pages 66-74

7. Back Matter

   Pages 75-95

   PDF

At the start of the seventeenth century a distinction emerged between 'public', outdoor, amphitheatre playhouses and 'private', indoor, hall venues. This book is the first sustained attempt to ask: why? Theatre historians have long acknowledged these terms, but have failed to attest to their variety and complexity. Assessing a range of evidence, from the start of the Elizabethan period to the beginning of the Restoration, the book overturns received scholarly wisdom to reach new insights into the politics of theatre culture and playbook publication. Standard accounts of the 'public' and 'private' theatres have either ignored the terms, or offered insubstantial explanations for their use. This book opens up the rich range of meanings made available by these vitally important terms and offers a fresh perspective on the way dramatists, theatre owners, booksellers, and legislators, conceived the playhouses of Renaissance London.

• Public
• Private
• Renaissance
• Early Modern
• Theatre History
• Book History
• Politics
• drama
• England
• history of literature
• history of theatre
• theatre
• British and Irish Literature

'Eoin Price's lively, scholarly study of what it meant to call a Renaissance playhouse 'private' or 'public' will change the ways in which we think about the Elizabethan and Jacobean theatre - indeed, it may change the ways in which we think about privacy, culture and the public sphere for good measure. This book is necessary reading for anyone interested in the institution of early modern drama.' Michael Dobson, Director of the Shakespeare Institute, Stratford-upon-Avon, and Professor of Shakespeare Studies, University of Birmingham, UK

• Swansea University, UK

  Eoin Price

Eoin Price is Tutor in English Literature at Swansea University, UK. He has published in Literature Compass, The Map of Early Modern London, and The Year's Work in English Studies.

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