Common understandings, poetic confusion : playhouses and playgoers in Elizabethan England / William N. West.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

West, William N., author.

Contributor:

Horace Howard Furness Memorial Library (University of Pennsylvania)

Horace Howard Furness Memorial Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Theater--England--History--16th century.

Theater.

Theater--England--History--17th century.

Theater audiences--England--History--16th century.

Theater audiences.

Theater audiences--England--History--17th century.

England.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

xii, 326 pages ; 24 cm

Other Title:

Playhouses and playgoers in Elizabethan England

Place of Publication:

Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 2021.

Summary:

"What if at night at the theaters in Elizabethan England more closely resembled attending a rugby match than sitting in a dark, silent audience, passively witnessing the action on the stage, or closer to going to a rock concert than sitting in front of a large or small screen, quietly and distantly absorbing a film or television drama? In this book, West proposes a new account of what happened in the playhouses of Shakespeare's time, and the kind of participatory entertainment expected by both the actors and the audience. Combining the precision of a philologist and the imagination of a philosopher, West performs careful readings of premodern figures of speech--including understanding, confusion, occupation, eating, and fighting--still in use today, but whose meanings for Elizabethan players, playgoers, and writers have diverged in subtle ways in our era. Playing itself was not restricted to the confines of the actors on the stage but pertained just as much to the audience in a collaborative rather than individualized theater experience, more corporeal, tactile, and active, rather than purely receptive and visual. Thrown apples, smashed bottles of beer, and lumbering bears--these and more contributed to both the verbal and physical interactions between players and playgoers, creating circuits of exchange, production, and consumption,all within the confines of the playhouse. West's account of the experience of the playhouse shows more affinity--and continuity--with more raucous, unruly medieval drama than previous literary critics have allowed. It will be of interest to a wide audience, actors, directors, and scholars included"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Machine generated contents note: There Is Not Agreement of Opinion

All the World's a Stage

Every Like Is Not the Same

1. Playing

Merely Players

What Learn You By That?

But Mark This Show

2. Occupatio

An Excellent Good Word Before It Was Ill Sorted

Looking Well to Borders

So Curious in New Fangles

3. Understanders

Deep in Understanding

Plain and Easy to be Understanden

All Readers to be Understanders

Feelingly Perceive

4. Confusion

Nothing but Confusion and Errors

Babylonical Confusion

What More Fitter Occasion?

Diverse Men of Diverse Minds

Commons Knowledge

Interlude. Playing, Thinking

5. Supposes

Valedictions to Sense

Brokers of Another's Wit

A Stalking-Stamping Player

Authors of All the Content

6. Eating

Between Meals

Some Hungry Scenes

Playing with Food

7. Non Plus

I'll Have a Challenge, Too

Fencers, Bearwards, Common Players

Non Plus

Trying Conclusions.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Horace Howard Furness Memorial Fund.

ISBN:

9780226808840

022680884X

9780226809038

022680903X

OCLC:

1241244819

Publisher Number:

99992656494