Introduction

Summary

Presents a history of the theatre closures of 1642, describing its effects on the production, reception, and conceptions of drama across the eighteen-year prohibition and tracing its influence in modern dramatic criticism. The Introduction unpacks the pervasive metaphor of the "death" of theatre after 1642, and the understanding of playbooks as the treasured remains of a theatrical culture now extinct. Demonstrates how the theatrical prohibition spurred theatrical nostalgia, print publication, and play reading, all crucial factors in English drama’s acquisition of a literary status. Takes the reader on an imaginary walking tour around London during the theatrical prohibition, attending to signs of theatre’s demise and printed drama’s endurance. Describes the emergence of three printed dramatic forms in the 1650s: the serial play collection, the all-drama commonplace book, and comprehensive catalogues of English printed drama, texts in which we see an emerging sense of what we now call “early modern drama” as a coherent genre and critical field. Demonstrates that the pre-1642 period came to be understood as a distinct cultural moment (the “last age”) associated with a discrete collection of plays (“old plays”), arguing that this conception paved the way for a coherent system of critical study and disciplinary analysis.