During the early modern period, the publication process decisively shaped the history play and its reception. Bringing together the methodologies of genre criticism and book history, this study argues that stationers have - through acts of selection and presentation - constructed some remarkably influential expectations and ideas surrounding genre. Amy Lidster boldly challenges the uncritical use of Shakespeare's Folio as a touchstone for the history play, exposing the harmful ways in which this has solidified its parameters as a genre exclusively interested in the lives of English kings. Reframing the Folio as a single example of participation in genre-making, this book illuminates the exciting and diverse range of historical pasts that were available to readers and audiences in the early modern period. Lidster invites us to reappraise the connection between plays on stage and in print, and to reposition playbooks within the historical culture and geopolitics of the book trade.

Showing how overlooked publication agents constructed and read early modern history plays, this book fundamentally re-evaluates the genre.

About the Author
Amy Lidster is a Departmental Lecturer in English Language and Literature at Jesus College, University of Oxford. She is co-editor of Shakespeare at War: A Material History (Cambridge University Press, 2023), and her work has appeared widely in books and journals, including Old St Paul's and Culture (2021), Shakespeare Survey, Shakespeare Studies, and Renaissance Drama.


Book Information
ISBN 9781316517253
Author Amy Lidster
Format Hardback
Page Count 280
Imprint Cambridge University Press
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Weight(grams) 568g
Dimensions(mm) 235mm * 158mm * 22mm