Chapter 5 - Morbid Symptoms

Summary

Explores the relationship between theatre history and dramatic criticism, exploring how the two were shaped by historiography’s embrace of English theatre and drama during the mid-seventeenth century. Responds to Richard Schoch’s argument that theatre history emerged as a field of study only with the “the weakening of the humanist paradigm that restricted history to public affairs.” Argues that historiography did not only lower its standards to include theatre; rather, the cultural and political upheaval of the 1640s and 1650s elevated theatre to the level of public affairs. Moreover, once the formerly reliable institutions of theatre and drama were threatened with oblivion, commentators were motivated to create and preserve records of the fleeting dramatic past. Describes how dramatic paratexts not only changed and became more prevalent after the closure of the theatres in 1642, but also became a medium for dramatic criticism, with prefaces assuming the role previously played by live conversation and verbal exchanges in the theatres. Attests to the lasting impact the closure of the theatres in 1642 had, and continues to have, on the reception and construction of English theatre history.