Product Description: In this book, Paul Whitfield White examines the interplay between theatre and religion in provincial England from the early Tudors to 1660. In challenging the critical narrative of secularization, suppression, and demise, he recasts the history of that drama in the light of fresh sources and scholarship...read more

This wide-ranging study relates patronage to Shakespeare and the theatrical culture of his time. Twelve distinguished theater historians address such questions as--What important functions did patronage have for the theater during this period? How, in turn, did the theater impact on and represent patronage? In what ways do patronage, political power, and playing intersect? The authors also show how patronage practices changed and developed from the early Tudor period to the years in which Shakespeare was the English theater's leading artist.

Product Description: The year 1993 marked the 400th anniversary of Marlowe's death by stabbing in a tavern brawl. It also served as a rallying point for novels, plays, a film and many scholarly events. Marlowe's life and writings, his commitments and ambivalences, his politically correct and violently anti-establishment posturings make him a man for the 1990s...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)

Product Description: Paul Whitfield White argues that, contrary to received wisdom, England's earliest Protestants were involved in drama as patrons, playwrights, performers and spectators. Extending rather than ending the traditional union of religion with dramatic representation, Tudor Protestant leaders in civil and church government recognised drama as a morally sound and profitable pastime and promoted stage playing as a means of winning popular consent for religious reform...read more (view table of contents, read Amazon.com's description)