Discoveries on the Early Modern Stage: Contexts and Conventions

Description

This study of the action of discovery as plot device, visual motif, and thematic trope on the early modern stage considers an important and popular performance convention in its cultural and religious contexts. Through close examination of a number of 'discoveries' taken from a wide range of early modern plays, Leslie Thomson traverses several related disciplines, including theatre history, literary analysis, art history, and the history of the religious practices that would have influenced Shakespeare and his contemporaries. Taking as its primary focus the performance of disguise-discoveries and discovery scenes, the analyses include considerations of how this particular device relates to genre, plot structure, language, imagery, themes, and the manipulation of playgoer expectations. With strong reference to the visual arts, and an appendix that addresses the problem of how and where discovery scenes were performed, Thomson offers an innovative perspective on the staging and meaning of early modern drama.

Leslie Thomson is Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Toronto. She is co-author (with Alan C. Dessen) of A Dictionary of Stage Directions in English Drama, 1580-1642 (Cambridge, 1999) and editor of Anything for a Quiet Life in Thomas Middleton: The Collected Works (2010). She has published articles on a range of topics related to early modern stage directions and staging.

'Leslie Thomson makes excellent use of her previous research into stage directions to give us a ground-breaking analysis of actions of 'discovery' on the Early Modern stage. This is an important book for scholars and students of theatre in the age of Shakespeare.' Ann Thompson, King's College London '... this study will help readers appreciate these plays as 'artefacts of another era.' Including a 16-page bibliography (primary and secondary works) and 32 illustrations, this is a valuable, detailed, and unique study. Highly recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty, professionals.' J. S. Carducci, Choice 'In her new book, Thomson's thorough survey of early modern dramatic works is, like her Dictionary, a great service to the field ... Thomson's attention to the visual arts, and the techniques by which they produced in viewers an experience of revelation or discovery, is perhaps the most innovative element in the book. It certainly deserves further attention from future scholars.' Bonnie Lander Johnson, Renaissance Quarterly 'This book undeniably sits within the realm of theatre and theatre history, but also contributes to art history and cultural history. As a resource for scholars thinking about staging, stage directions, art, culture, discovery spaces, props, or the business of early modern theatre, this book will surely shine new light on the topic of discoveries and lead its readers to generative new ideas and conclusions.' Jess Hamlet, Early Theatre