Children's Troupes and the Transformation of English Theater 1509-1608

Jeanne H. McCarthy is Associate Professor of English at Georgia Gwinnett College. She has published extensively on patronage, authorship, and performance in the boy company playing tradition.

• CONTENTSList of IllustrationsAcknowledgmentsPreface. Schooling the Drama Chapter One. Playbooks and Playtexts: Literacy, Education, and Printed Drama Chapter Two. Playbooks in the Henrician Era: Test Cases for a School and Chapel AuspiceChapter Three. Playing I: Literacy and Oral Performance PracticesChapter Four. Playing II: The Power of Performance in the School TraditionChapter Five. Patronage in the Tudor EraChapter Six. Playwrights I Chapter Seven. Playwrights II: Literary Playwriting and Ben Jonson Epilogue. Jacobean Reactions and AfterlifeAppendix 1: Earliest Editions of Printed Plays in English 1512-1550Appendix 2: Earliest Printed Plays in English 1550- 1594BibliographyIndex

"McCarthy’s study remains an important intervention in the scholarship on early modern children’s performance, offering a series of insights into sixteenth century theatrical practice, a number of new avenues for future scholarship, and an insight into the ‘rich conjunction of oral and literate modes’ on which theatre depended."- Lucy Munro, King’s College London, Early Theatre