Records of Early English Drama and the Computer

Abstract

This chapter discusses the role of computer in the preservation of records of early English drama. Since 1790, when Edmond Malone printed excerpts from the diary of Philip Henslowe, the major Elizabethan theater owner, literary antiquarians, and theater historians have eagerly searched for early English dramatic records. After the Malone Society was founded in 1907, partly to publish records of the professional theaters of Renaissance London, much information became available in its collections volumes, but many medieval provincial records were left unedited. In 1975, Records of Early English Drama (REED) was created by a team of researchers to edit and index documentary evidence for all performance and performers of drama, minstrelsy, and ceremony throughout Great Britain from the beginnings to 1642. Computer technology has already been helpful in editing. A Toronto program, Concordance Generation System (COGS), has produced, for the volumes of the York and Chester records, concordances that have been invaluable in verifying, glossing, and indexing texts by hand.