From Script to Stage in Early Modern England by Peter Holland, Stephen Orgel

Abstract

io86 Reviews holy alliance between Archbishop Rowan Williams and St Thomas Aquinas-which is whether the given medieval writer could think of the Church, founded amidst betrayal and dependent on flawed ministers, as 'acommunity both immersed in sin and yet also the divine gift inwhich [thewriter] received the sacraments' (p. 96).William Thorpe's critique of apersecuting Church 'could have opened out towards' the insight of Rowan Williams, but 'did not' (p. 97). This, tome, is a quite amazing might-have-been. Sanctifying Signs, merciless towards the 'exorbitance' of doctrines enforced at the time by the ecclesiastical hierarchy but also alert for paradoxes and divergences in the reformist position, will certainly claim a place in the burgeoning investigation of latemedieval constructions of the Church. The book's claim would be stronger but for two drawbacks. One is that at some points it is outrageously repetitive. Chapter 4 flagrantly repeats material on pp. 72, 73, and 75 from pp. 3I, 32, 49, and 46. While it is one symptom of Aers's strong personal investment in his arguments that he cultivates a rhetoric of vehement iteration, these repetitions are exasperating and might be frowned upon in a student's work. The second drawback, arising from the same high level of personal investment, is quite simply that the author seems actually to be urging-not just investigating-particular definitions of the Church and of Christ's ministry and the sacraments. GOLDSMITHS COLLEGE, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON ALCUIN BLAMIRES From Script toStage inEarly Modern England. Ed. by PETERHOLLAND and STEPHEN ORGEL. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. 2004. Xiii + 25 IPP. ?I4.99. ISBN I 4039-3343-X. For all those weary of a theatre history that fails to take account of the theatre his torian's own history and practice, this collection offers awelcome antidote. It is the first in the Redefining British Theatre History series, which brings together major practitioners in theatre history to review 'where we are and what we think we are doing' (p. xiii). Over the last half century, our understanding of early modern theatre has changed profoundly. Most significantly, there has been a shift from a playwright centred focus of the theatre to theatre as an institution-to plays as 'performances and events' as viewed from the perspective of 'audiences, actors, theatre companies, patrons, architects and designers' (p. i). While reminding the reader of just how much is overlooked when we focus merely on the texts of plays, this book argues for a quasi-compulsory rethinking of the nature of early modern theatre history as a discipline, pointing especially to the necessity for a revision of our thoughts on what constitutes evidence. Revisiting (and in some instances raising serious doubts over) time-honoured assumptions about the early modern stage, the volume yields new insights into the collaborative nature of dramatic production. The collection is organized in four parts: Questions of Evidence; Interrogating Data; What is a Play?; Women's Work. Altogether eleven essays are brought together under these headings and a truly absorbing range isprovided. Of particular interest is R. A. Foakes's discussion of the staging of Tamburlaine in relation to the archaeology of the Rose playhouse, calling for a radical revision of our understanding of public theatres. In a splendidly comprehensive challenge to the notion of the play-text as an integral whole, Tiffany Stern reveals how plays in print are 'patchworks' comprised of different elements (songs, prologues, epilogues), 'each raising the possibility of dif ferent authorship, and each capable of having other existences in other books, other places, and other contexts' (p. i66). Also suggestive isClaire Sponsler's essay on the particular problem of recognizing medieval plays in the archives. Using the example of John Lydgate's work, her fine argument is that medieval drama often entered MLR, I0 I .4, 2006 Io87 the written record in ways that erased its performative markers. Natasha Korda's authoritative narrative on the role that women performed in the networks of com merce surrounding the theatre is especially insightful. She provides the reader with an abundance of interesting factual information and cogent analysis about females in the needlework and second-hand clothingtrades who supplied and maintained the theatre company's most...