Illustrations of the English stage, 1580-1642

Gathers together all the important surviving visual evidence on the English stage from the rise of professional theatres in London to their closing in the Commonwealth period. Each illustration is accompanied by a commentary that describes what can be seen, assesses its significance and analyses the problems of interpretation. The illustrations are divided into five groups which are presented chronologically. The first group consists of maps, panoramas and views of London that contain theatre buildings. The second group includes drawings and title-page vignettes that illustrate specific actors, stages, or plans for converting halls into theatres. The third group is drawn from the printed texts of plays, and features frontispieces and title-pages that appear to relate to the staging and costuming of plays. The fourth group contains a few miscellaneous matters, notable the symbolic theatre drawings of Robert Fludd. The fifth section considers illustrations in playtexts apparently having no reference to the stage.