Arthur F. Kinney is Thomas W. Copeland Professor of Literary History Emeritus in the University of Massachusetts and Founding Director of the Massachusetts Center for Interdisciplinary Renaissance Studies. He is the author and editor of a number of books and essays, including Renaissance Drama (editor, 2005), Shakespeare and Cognition (2006), Elizabethan and Jacobean England (2010), The Oxford Handbook of Shakespeare (editor, 2012), and Renaissance Reflections, Selected Essays 1976-2014 (2014). He is the only recipient of both the Paul Oskar Kristeller Lifetime Achievement Award from the Renaissance Society of America and the Jean Roberts Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Sidney Society.

Thomas Warren Hopper is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Massachusetts Amherst whose research focuses on classical reception. He has previously worked as the Walter T. Chmielewski Fellow for English Literary Renaissance, contributed to the editing of The Oxford Handbook of Shakespeare (2012). He teaches at Eagle Hill School in Hardwick, MA.

A New Companion to Renaissance Drama provides an invaluable summary of past and present scholarship surrounding the most popular and influential literary form of its time. Original interpretations from leading scholars set the scene for important paths of future inquiry.
* A colorful, comprehensive and interdisciplinary overview of the material conditions of Renaissance plays, England's most important dramatic period
* Contributors are both established and emerging scholars, with many leading international figures in the discipline
* Offers a unique approach by organizing the chapters by cultural context, theatre history, genre studies, theoretical applications, and material studies
* Chapters address newest departures and future directions for Renaissance drama scholarship
* Arthur Kinney is a world-renowned figure in the field

List of Illustrations x
Notes on Contributors xi
Acknowledgments xviii
Introduction 1
Arthur F. Kinney and Thomas Warren Hopper
Part I Context 9
1 The Politics of Renaissance England 11
Norman Jones
2 Continental Influences 21
Lawrence F. Rhu
3 Medieval and Reformation Roots 35
Raphael Falco
4 Popular Culture and the Early Modern Stage 51
Sophie Chiari and Francois Laroque
5 Multiculturalism and Early Modern Drama 65
Scott Oldenburg
6 London and Westminster 75
Ian W. Archer
7 Travel and Trade 88
William H. Sherman
8 The Theater and the Early Modern Culture of Debt 98
Amanda Bailey
9 Vagrancy 112
William C. Carroll
10 Domestic Life 125
Martin Ingram
11 Religious Persuasions, c.1580-c.1620 143
Lori Anne Ferrell
12 Science, Natural Philosophy, and New Philosophy in Early Modern England 154
Barbara H. Traister
13 Magic and Witchcraft 170
Deborah Willis
14 Antitheatricality: The Theater as Scourge 182
Leah S. Marcus
Part II Theater History 193
15 Performance: Audiences, Actors, Stage Business 195
S. P. Cerasano
16 Playhouses 211
David Kathman
17 Theatrical License and Censorship 225
Richard Dutton
18 Playing Companies and Repertory 239
Roslyn L. Knutson
19 Rehearsal and Acting Practice 250
Don Weingust
20 Boy Companies and Private Theaters 268
Michael Shapiro
21 Women's Involvement in Theatrical Production 282
Natasha Korda
22 "To travayle amongst our frendes": Touring 296
Peter H. Greenfield
23 Progresses and Court Entertainments 309
R. Malcolm Smuts
24 "What revels are in hand?" Performances in the Great Households 322
Suzanne Westfall
25 Civic Drama 337
Lawrence Manley
Part III Genres 355
26 Masque 357
David Lindley
27 The History Play: Shakespeare and Beyond 371
Brian Walsh
28 Domestic Tragedy: Private Life on the Public Stage 388
Lena Cowen Orlin
29 Revenge Tragedy 403
Marissa Greenberg
30 Romance and Tragicomedy 417
Jane Hwang Degenhardt and Cyrus Mulready
Part IV Critical Approaches 441
31 Sexuality and Queerness on the Early Modern Stage 443
Valerie Billing
32 Gendering the Stage 456
Alison Findlay
33 Race and Early Modern Drama 474
Mary Floyd?-Wilson
34 Staging Disability in Renaissance Drama 487
David Houston Wood
35 Space and Place 501
Adam Zucker
36 The Matter of Wit and the Early Modern Stage 513
Ian Munro
37 Materialisms 529
Elizabeth Williamson
Part V Playwrights, Publishers, and Textual Studies 543
38 The Transmission of an English Renaissance Play?]Text 545
Grace Ioppolo
39 Publishers of Drama 560
Tara L. Lyons
40 Sidney, Cary, Cavendish: Playwrights of the Printed Page and a Future Stage 576
Lara Dodds and Margaret Ferguson
41 Nonprofessional Playwrights 598
Matteo Pangallo
Index 612