Brings together three much-discussed seventeenth-century plays in an accessible and scholarly edition for the first time, allowing for comparative and contextual studies A substantial co-authored introduction addresses questions of elite female culture in the early modern period and the emergence of the professional female actor All three editors have an established reputation in the field of seventeenth-century scholarship, and have produced pioneering work on elite female culture and the stage The volume is innovative in terms of its attention to questions of gender and performance as they are staged and explored in seventeenth-century drama Offers varied examples of theatrical practice and performance while also considering lines of interaction and influence between the writers and plays discussed