The Elizabethan Theatre XIII: Papers given at the Thirteenth International Conference on Elizabethan Theatre ed. by A.L. Magnusson, C.E. McGee (review)

HUMANITIES 329 I suspect, however, that readers will be the most affected, dismayed, and shocked by the narratives found in the Infanticide Trials at the Old Bailey. In her chapter based on eighteenth-century reports, Allyson May reveals the quandary faced by single mothers because of the Puritan Act of 1624, which remained until 1803.This act provided I that a woman who concealed the death ofher bastard child was presumed to have murderedit unless she could prove by at least one witness that the child had beenborn dead,' May points out that for a servant whose livelihood and life 'depended on her reputation,' an illegitimate child 'could lead to the loss of a position and denial of references, leaving the unwed mother with a narrow range of options for survival.' Though it is a relief to discover that convictions of infanticide or murder occurred rarely, the narratives themselves are heartbreaking accounts of single women's (usually servants') fears, need for concealment, physical and psychicsuffering, and ostracization. Thereports of the trials reveal the desperate situations of unmarried mothers, as dead babies are found thrown in vaults, strangled or with their throats cut. Not all the essays are so horrifying or melodramatic, but the collection does uncover many 'lies, secrets, and silences' about women of the early modern period. It is a compelling and provocative read lor both women and men. (ELEANOR TY) A.L. Magnusson and C.E. McGee, editors. The Elizabethan Theatre XIII: Papers given at the Thirteenth International COllference on Elizabethan Theatre P.D. Meany 1994- xvi, 192. $48.00 An important strength of the volumes emerging from the International Conference on Elizabethan Theatre is that each volume-like theconference from which it comes - has a specific, different focus. Each volume's papers thus work together to provide a variety of angles on a particular theatre topic. Volume 13, on I Acting and the Elizabethan Theatre,' contains papers by eight scholars and one actress (the latter, Nancy Palk, with considerable stage experience of Shakespeare). Not strictly 'Elizabethan' in its coverage, the volume stretches back into the provincial drama of the fifteenth and earlier sixteenth centuries (what Alexandra Johnston here calls the 'inherited tradition' of Shakespeare's theatre) and ahead into the Jacobean period, and groups together papers with differing emphases: for example, on theatre history, on performance history, on performance analysis, on play analysis via performance. The two most historically focused papers are Johnston's and Andrew Gurr's. Johnston provides a useful and solid provincial backdrop for the London-oriented papers following; working above all with documentary materials supplied by the various volumes of the ongoing Records of Early 330 LEITERS IN CANADA 1995 English Drama (REED) series, and from personal performance experience of the early drama, she emphasizes the continuities - for example, in uses of complex verse forms - between the pre-Shakespearean and the Shakespearean drama. Gurr, discussing seventeenth-century London play performances in outdoor amphitheatres, such as the Globe, versus play performances in indoor hall theatres, such as the Blackfriars, points out the difficulties involved in attempting to generalize about different kinds of performances in the two different types of location: for example, some plays were performed successfully in both venues. Rightly noting the circularity of arguments about Jold-fashioned' amphitheatre plays, Gurr appropriately concludes inconclusively. Both papers thus involve continuities: with Johnston offering us some new certainties while Gurr removes some old ones. G.B. Shand, Brian Parker, Christina Luckyj, and Eugene Waith all effectively combine production and play analysis, though with differing emphases. Shand, the least historically oriented of the four, persuasively demonstrates a possible way of finding in Hamlet a ,suicidal Gertrude, through a 'responsible actorly encounter with the text.' Parker, discussing staging problems in the text of Coriolanus, fascinatingly illuminates the tensions, ambiguities, and overall moral scepticism of that play. Luckyj argues that in Webster's Duchess of Malfi the dialogue itself directs an actor's effective use of it; provocatively, she suggests that production attempts by a director today at either realism or conventionalism Jpit the actor against the language, the director against the actor.' Waith more , generally commentson the relationshipbetween words (especially rhetoric) and action in Tudor and Stuart...