Textual patronage in English drama, 1570-1640
Including discussion of prefaces in plays by Shakespeare's contemporaries as well as Shakespeare himself, this book shows that English playwrights, printers and publishers looked toward aristocrats and the reading public to secure status for and dissemination of dramatic texts. It emphasizes patronage of both aristocrats and book-buyers.
Criticism, interpretation, etc
viii, 247 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
9780754654056, 0754654052
987663308
Introduction: A preface about prefaces; The printing house and textual patronage; 'Complements of state': pageants, masques, and prefaces; Women as patrons of drama; 'It cannot avoid publishing': Marston and colleagues; 'I make thee my patron': Ben Jonson; The King's men's King's men: Shakespeare and folio patronage; Thomas Heywood's apology for readers (1608 - 38); 'Your noble construction': textual patronage in the 1630s; Epilogue: L'envoi; Appendix; Bibliography; Index.