Invariant Paratexts in English Dramatic Texts

Summary

IN my Textual Patronage in English Drama, 1570–1640, I investigate the presence and function of epistles dedicatory and addresses to readers in the printed drama. These documents Gérard Genette famously has named “paratexts”; we can also call them “prefaces.” Whatever we call them, they persist in playtexts with increasing regularity as we pass from Elizabeth's reign to the end of Charles's. I see them as participating in and at moments constructing what I call “textual patronage”—the acknowledgment in the text of indebtedness and gratitude. Only in these prefatory documents do we hear the playwright's voice directly in the first person; we may on occasion also hear the voice of the printer or publisher. In any event, these writers intend that these paratexts should be prominent in the dramatic text's presentation.

To engage in a serious discussion of epistles dedicatory and addresses to readers risks swimming against a scholarly tide that has largely ignored this material, and it certainly risks inducing soporific responses. I know from experience that my students' eyes seriously glaze over if I so much as mention this topic. Although these paratexts sit as a kind of appendage to the main text—they literally are an “after thought”—they nevertheless form a textual frame by which and through which we approach the play itself. One would not know this from examining some modern editions of Renaissance plays, which often omit the prefatory material altogether.