Contexts for Early English drama (review)

186 Reviews much discussed matter of Sidney's own awkward social position. Raymond Waddington, the book's sole representative of the spear side, contributes a dazzling analysis of a portrait of Francois I in female dress, relating it to his political humiliation and forced diplomatic marriage under the treaty of Cambrai, to the vogue in Fontainebleau art for 'aggressive, emasculating women and impotent men', and to CastigUone's exposition of courtly wit. Maryanne Cline Horowitz exemplifies elegantiy the conspectual genre of the editorial introduction. (Why do books of this nature require a small army of editors?) She reviews thefieldwith erudite authority, she does not endow the collection with factitious unity, and she does not indulge in excessive selfadvertisement despite citing her own writings five times in an essay of ten pages. Anthony Miller Department of EngUsh University of Sydney Briscoe, Marianne G. and John C. Coldewey, eds., Contexts for Early English drama, Bloomington and Indianapolis, Indiana University Press, 1989; cloth; pp. xiv, 258; R.R.P. US$29. 95. This volume is the most important contribution to ongoing research into English medieval and Renaissance drama in recent years. Each of these outstanding essays provides an extensive bibliography of further reading. The book as a whole is an invaluable documentation of drama related cultural studies. In a review of this kind it is impossible to do justice to the scholarship of the individual contributors. With this in mind, I concentrate here on what I see as the major achievement of the collection, that is, the clear presentation of challenges for further research. The individual essays survey previous research and reach their own conclusions, but, most importandy, they suggest new beginnings. Alexandra F. Johnston, General Editor of the Records of Early English drama series, uses her background of knowledge of the contemporary documentation to urge speculation based on thetextsnamed in the documents, but no longer extant to arrive at a fully representative view of the dramatic activity of the period. Record-based speculation is amply demonstrated in the contributions by Stanley J. Kahrl (staging) and John R. ElUott Jr (acting styles), both of w h o m betieve in the value of a continued search for undiscovered records. Donald C. Baker suggests that we make more use of the manuscripts of dramatictextsas records of the authors and their compositional approach as well as revision processes and staging. Robert Potter calls for the breaking down of national boundaries in a search for a common European culture expressed in the dramatic tradition. This, he Reviews 187 believes, would demonstrate both a cultural unity and the distinctiveness of EngUsh, and no doubt other, national dramatic modes. This challenge is partly met by Lynette Muir who examines the English-French connection and offers the torch to others to continue the search. John C. Coldewey extends the context to socio-economics. Here we can see a need to look at the broader economic situation, not just the drama related expenditure in the Records of Early English drama publications. Lawrence M . Clopper asks us to look at the socio-political context of civic government and the difference between drama based on the civic authority and that under clerical control. Alan H. Nelson suggests a close scrutiny of a possible link between the academic and the professional theatre. Marianne G. Briscoe advocates further social andtextualstudy of the relationship between the sermon tradition and the drama which strove to reach the same popular audience. Pamela Sheingorn puts forward the study of perception theory and style in medieval art as a way into interpreting written text and reconstructing staging. Richard Rastall offers invaluable information on medieval music and suggests the consideration of plays in conjunction with the music that accompanied them. The editors and the contributors are to be congratulated on their consistent advocacy of a search for new materials, both documentary and textual and of the application of methods from other disciplines to the study of the early drama. In this way, the collection has created its own framing context and set up intellectual challenges. Margaret Rogerson Department of English University of Sydney Bruckner, Thomas, Die erste franzOsische Aeneis. Untersuchungen zu Octovien de Saint-Gelais' Ubersetzung Mit einer kritischen Edition...