From Playhouse to Printing House: Drama and Authorship in Early Modern England

This original study examines how Shakespeare and his contemporaries made the difficult transition from writing plays for the theatre to publishing them as literary works. Tracing the path from playhouse to printing house, Douglas Brooks analyses how and why certain popular plays found their way into print while many others failed to do so and looks at the role played by the Renaissance book trade in shaping literary reputations. Incorporating many finely-observed typographical illustrations, this book focuses on plays by Shakespeare, Jonson, Webster and Beaumont and Fletcher as well as reviewing the complicated publication history of Thomas Heywood’s work. Brooks stakes out new ground by uncovering the continually shifting relationship between theatre and publisher and defining the way in which the concept of authorship changed. His book represents an important contribution to the ongoing refiguration of two histories: English Renaissance drama and the early modern book.