Playbooks and their Readers in Early Modern England

Hannah August is Senior Lecturer in English at Massey University in New Zealand.

• Introduction1 Who read plays?2 Why read plays?3 How were plays read? Part One: Extractive reading4 How were plays read? Part Two: Using, marking, annotatingConclusionAppendix: Professional play quartos with Horatian title page mottoes, 1598-1659

"August’s book looks afresh at evidence of playbook reception from prefaces to prices to marginalia, finding compelling new things to say about book history, theatre, gender, and reading. Brilliantly written and expertly researched, this is authoritative and transformative." Emma Smith, Hertford College, University of Oxford "Based on an immense and impressive body of archival evidence, and juxtaposing printed dramatic paratexts and manuscript sources, Playbooks and their Readers in Early Modern England offers a complex, nuanced, and illuminating picture of early modern dramatic reading practices. It is essential reading for scholars of early modern drama, readership studies, and book history."Heidi Craig, Texas A&M University "This is a careful and sophisticated investigation of an important topic […]. [August] has command of a vast array of material and shows that playbooks had a wider potential appeal and were marketed to wider audiences than we might have thought."Laurie Maguire, Magdalen College, University of Oxford