Licensing, Censorship and Authorship in Early Modern England

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xx

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2. The Regulation and Censorship of Early Modern Drama

   • Richard Dutton

   Pages 1-15

3. Licensed Fools: the 1598 Watershed

   • Richard Dutton

   Pages 16-40

4. Obscenity and Profanity: Sir Henry Herbert’s Problems with the Players and Archbishop Laud, 1632–34

   • Richard Dutton

   Pages 41-61

5. Marlowe: Censorship and Construction

   • Richard Dutton

   Pages 62-89

6. Shakespeare: the Birth of the Author

   • Richard Dutton

   Pages 90-113

7. Jonson: the Epistle to Volpone

   • Richard Dutton

   Pages 114-131

8. Middleton: the Censorships of A Game at Chess

   • Richard Dutton

   Pages 132-161

9. Buggeswords: the Case of Sir John Hayward’s Life of Henry IV

   • Richard Dutton

   Pages 162-191

10. Back Matter

    Pages 192-218

    PDF

Licensing, Censorship and Authorship in Early Modern England examines in detail both how the practice of censorship shaped writing in the Shakespearean period, and how our sense of that censorship continues to shape modern understandings of what was written. Separate chapters trace the development of licensing in the theatre, and the response of the actors and dramatists to it. There are detailed examinations of how censorship affects our reading of four major playwrights: Marlowe, Shakespeare, Jonson and Middleton, and of how the control of printed books compared with that of the stage.

• construction
• drama
• dramatist
• England
• knowledge
• nation
• play
• stage
• theatre
• understanding
• William Shakespeare
• writing

"...Dutton demonstrates his commanding knowledge of the Revels Office and the most important English dramatists of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries." - Ben Jonson Journal

Richard Dutton is Professor of English, Lancaster University.

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