Disguise on the Early Modern English Stage

Peter Hyland, Professor of Early Modern Literature and Drama, Huron University College, The University of Western Ontario, Canada.

• Contents: Introduction; Disguise on the early modern stage; The performance of disguise; ''Tis I': revelations; Disguise and genre; Disguise as metatheatre; The reception of disguise; 'Now am I most like myself': disguise and identity; Bibliography; Index.

'Disguise on the Early Modern Stage is a brisk and rewarding read that fully delivers on its promise to undertake a "serious and sustained exploration" of those early modern plays "that have been relegated to the margins." Showing a comprehensive grasp of disguise devices and plots from Clyomon and Clamydes to Shirley's The Sisters, Hyland fearlessly and authoritatively discusses such unheralded gems as Look About You, The Night Walker, and A Knack to Know an Honest Man, and shows them to be important for our understanding of early modern drama in general.' Jeremy Lopez, University of Toronto, Canada 'Hyland’s book contributes to ’a serious and sustained exploration and mapping of those plays that have been relegated to the margins’ (p. 14). In doing so, he reinforces the value of attending to the theatrical as much as to the literary elements in the plays and adds to our understanding of early modern drama.' Parergon '... in [Hyland’s] comprehensive framing of the issues, and in his widening of the focus on disguise to include the technical aspects of putting performers young and old, well-known and obscure (if uniformly male), in adopted identities, he persuades that there are important aspects of disguise yet to be revealed.' Renaissance Quarterly '... this book expertly lays out the case that disguises - no matter how obviously hoary or unconvincing, as they sometimes were - greatly enriched the visual field of the early modern stage, delighting spectators and giving actors opportunities both to display their skills and to comment in a myriad of ways on theatricality itself.' Shakespeare Bulletin