The Queen's Men and their Plays

This is the first book devoted to the Queen's Men, one of the major acting companies of the age of Shakespeare. In describing the troupe's position in the general political situation and the London theatre scene of the 1580s, the authors break new ground by showing how Elizabethan theatre history can be refocused by concentrating on the company which produced the plays rather than on the authors who wrote them. The book combines a thorough examination of documentary evidence with textual and critical analysis, to provide a full account of the characteristics which gave the company its identity: its acting style, staging methods, touring patterns and repertoire. The conclusions will interest Elizabethan historians as well as students and scholars of early modern theatre.

1. The London theatre of 1583; 2. Protestant politics: Leicester and Walsingham; 3. The career of the Queen's Men; 4. The Queen's Men in print; 5. Casting and the nature of the text; 6. Dramaturgy; 7. Marlowe and Shakespeare; Appendices; Notes; Bibliography; Index.

This is the first book devoted to the Queen's Men, one of the major acting companies of the age of Shakespeare. It refocuses Elizabethan theatre history by concentrating on the company which produced the plays rather than on the authors who wrote them.