Publisher's Synopsis
Drawing on the whole spectrum of Elizabethan-Jacobean writing (including letters and diaries), this anthology gives a picture of the world of the theatre against a background of the social activities and problems which were such a fruitful source of material to Shakespeare and his contemporaries.;Part I describes drama, audiences, theatrical companies, repertoires, acting and actors, buildings and equipment. Part II provides the social background: home, school, sport, Court, London, underworld, Church and State, the supernatural, law, philosophy, medicine, overseas trade and exploration.;The editor outlines the historical background to each selection and links the topics covered to specific examples in the drama. Notes deal with problems raised by Elizabethan-Jacobean idiom and language or by local, topical and literary allusions.;Professor Evans has taught Elizabethan-Jacobean drama for more than forty years and has edited over forty-five plays of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.;New Mermaids are modern-spelling, fully annotated editions of important English plays.
