William David Green

A Performance of the farce 'Een Cluyte van Plaeyerwater' (A Clod from Plaeyerwater) at a Flemish Kermis, Peeter Baltens, c.1570. Rijksmuseum. Public Domain.

‘A Defence of Pretence’ by Indira Ghose review

If all the world’s a stage, argues Indira Ghose in A Defence of Pretence: Civility and the Theatre in Early Modern England, then on the stage is where we see change most vividly.

Elizabethan players, from The Wits, or Sport upon Sport, being a curious collection of several drols and farces, by Francis Kirkman, 1673. British Library/Bridgeman Images.

Bringing Down the Curtain on the Touring Theatre

For most of the late 16th and early 17th century, theatre companies touring England were welcomed in provincial towns. But as tastes changed, players found themselves take second billing to moral concerns.

Original title page for A Game at Chess, 1624. Folger Shakespeare Library. Public Domain.

A Dangerous Game on the Jacobean Stage

For nine days Thomas Middleton’s A Game at Chess was the greatest box office phenomenon of the English Renaissance. Then a warrant was issued for his arrest.