Magic on the Early English Stage

Magic on the Early English Stage explores the performance of magical tricks, illusions, effects, and their staged appearance in theatre from the medieval period to the seventeenth century. Performers who created such magic were not known as conjurors, as we might refer to them today, but as jugglers. Records concerning jugglers on the medieval stage have been hitherto misunderstood or misapplied. These references to jugglers on the medieval stage are re-examined in the light of references to ‘feats of activity’ that also include tumbling, vaulting, and ‘dancing on the rope’; appearances and disappearances in respect of ‘Now you see it, now you don’t’ and stage versions of these concepts; magic through sound in terms of ventriloquy; mechanical images and puppets; and stage tricks. Information that has remained dormant since original publication is discussed in relation to jugglers such as Thomas Brandon, the King’s Juggler, and William Vincent, alias ‘Hocus Pocus’.