Licensing, Censorship and Authorship in Early Modern England: Buggesords [Hardcover]

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.Acknowledgements Notes on Texts and Preface The Regulation and Censorship of Early Modern Drama Licensed Fools: The 1598 Watershed Obscenity and Profanity: Sir Henry Herbert's Problems with the Players and Archbishop Laud, 1632-34 Marlowe: Censorship and Construction Shakespeare: The Birth of the Author Jonson: The Epistle to Volpone Middleton: The Censorships of A Game at Chess Buggeswords: The Case of Sir Henry Hayward's Life of Henry IV Works Cited and Consulted Index

...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.