Digital Humanities and the Lost Drama of Early Modern England

Matthew Steggle is Professor of English at Sheffield Hallam University, UK.

• Contents: Introduction; Thomas Nashe and Robert Mills, Terminus & Non Terminus (1586-1588); Richard the Confessor (1593); Cutlack (1594); Bellendon (1594); Thomas Dekker, Truth's Supplication to Candlelight (1600); Thomas Heywood and Wentworth Smith, Albere Galles (1602); Henry the Una (c. 1619); The Angel King (1624); Henry Glapthorne, The Duchess of Fernandina (c. 1630-1642); The Cardinal's Conspiracy (bef. 1639); Conclusion; Works cited; Index.

"Digital Humanities and the Lost Drama of Early Modern England: Ten Case Studies is an exciting, innovative and smartly executed scholarly project. Each case study illuminates not only the lost play under discussion but also its contribution to the landscape of early modern drama including repertorial commerce, the interaction among dramatists, and Shakespeare's "place" in regard to the lost play." - Roslyn L. Knutson, University of Arkansas, Little Rock, USA"Steggle’s brilliant and scrupulous scholarship shines through the volume... Devoid of any discernible flaws, Matthew Steggle’s Digital Humanities and the Lost Drama of Early Modern England: Ten Case Studies represents another key contribution to the mapping of the lost plays of early modern England. Not only does the volume indisputably identify the likely content of the ten plays under examination, it also helps to elaborate a specific terminology and a mixed critical approach for dealing with any lost play, thereby paving the way for future critical work." - Domenico Lovascio, Universita degli Studi di Genova, Notes and Queries"In short, Steggle’s monograph is a keenly-argued, rigorously-researched study, advocating and demonstrating how to use emergent technologies, and growing textual repositories of searchable plays, to answer age-old questions about particular lost plays. Although many of its examples are esoteric – a testament to Steggle’s exceptional knowledge of his subject matter – its methodologies, and underlining philosophical assumptions of the powers and relevancies of searching, are universal. Read what Steggle has to say, more than once." - Joshua J. McEvilla, SHARP News "Matthew Steggle has produced a remarkably original and informative book on ten Renaissance plays whose scripts have not survived: Digital Humanities and the Lost Drama of Early Modern England: Ten Case Studies. (...) It’s an excellent example of how the digital humanities can dovetail in productive ways with traditional scholarly formats like the academic monograph" - Kevin Curran, SEL Studies in English Literature 1500-1900, Volume 57, Number 2, Spring 2017