Records of Early English Drama: Shropshire (review)

238 Reviews I hope that in future Smith and others will venture further into the terrain of history and ideology to enrich our reading of this poetry. Elizabeth Moran Department of English University of Western Australia Somerset, J. Alan B., Records of Early English Drama: Shropshire, Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 2 vols., 1994; cloth; pp. 833; R.R.P. US$175.00, £114.00. These handsome red volumes represent the eleventh publication in the Records of Early English Drama (REED) series. The R E E D project's professed aim is to make available transcriptions of documentary material for the use of students of early English drama, music, dance and ceremonial up to the close of the London theatres in 1642. The project, which issued its first volumes in 1979, began with major towns like York and Chester for which texts of Creation to Doomsday cycle plays have survived. It subsequently moved to broader collections surveying whole counties and to towns that have either only fragments of cycles, non-cyclic texts, or no extant dramatic texts at all. The Shropshire volumes offer opportunities both for studies linked with textual material (The Shrewsbury Fragments; Milton's Comus) and for investigations of a more general nature. The information about celebration of the festival occasion of Corpus Christi, for example, adds considerable local colour to our knowledge of this important social and religious custom. Alan Somerset has likened his experience as a R E E D editor to 'longdistance sailing' (p. vii). If we interpret this as a merchant-adventuring metaphor, we can regard the well-presented 'Records' volume as a cargo of primary products that he has collected on his successful voyage. Those of us who have remained on dry land may now take and re-fashion these products into goods to our own pleasing. To guide us, we have at our disposal the excellent 'Editorial Apparatus' volume that provides commentary, translations and other supporting material to facilitate our task. For us, the end products will be limited only by the scope of our own research interests and ingenuity. Shropshire, like all R E E D publications, is designed for active readers. It is a compendium of information that needs to be consulted and re-consulted. It will delight those with an eye for minute detail and an ability to absorb that Reviews 239 detail to their own areas of study. In his introduction to the 'Editorial Apparatus' volume, Somerset demonstrates an intimate understanding of the eclectic material that he has considered in the selection of records for publication. His overview of the historical and social background for the county is executed with a light hand. It provides a firm context for the volume as well as a guide to further reading. The introduction balances suggestions of avenues for further research with personal interpretations of the documents by the editor. For example, his discussion of the maypole ceremonies (pp. 398-404) is extensive, while his outline of the role of the schools in ceremonial activities in Shrewsbury and Ludlow could be a starting point for a more in-depth study of schoolboy theatre. Even material that has been omitted from the 'Records' volume features here. W e are advised that schoolboy 'orations' are included only if it is clear that they 'involved public mimetic performance' (p. 471), but Somerset gives details about the nature and location of related material that has been excluded. Those w h o might be interested in the non-mimetic 'speech-day type of exercise' (p. 471) have sufficient information to embark on further personal investigations. Shropshire should be read with the other R E E D volumes available for handy consultation. One of the advantages of the series is that it is providing scholars with an expanding, albeit slowly expanding, database. It is possible to follow the activities of minstrels, entertaining fools, or indeed any form of drama covered by the series in a growing number of locations. Appendix I of Shropshire (pp. 501-06) provides an interesting cross reference for users of the REED: Coventry (ed. R. W . Ingram, 1981). It contains fines imposed on Shrewsbury mercers w h o neglected their local Corpus Christi...