Records of Early English Drama: Shropshire Volume 1: The Records. Volume 2: Editorial Apparatus ed. by J. Alan B. Somerset (review)

186 LETTERS IN CANADA 1994 Blanchot, Bataille, Derrida, Nietzsche, Levinas, Merleau-Ponty, Lacan. Pour qui se decouvre friand de deconstruction et desireux d'errer en litterature, en dehors de toute conception fonctionnelle du litteraire et de toute balise normative, Le proche et Ie lointain represente une traversee vertigineuse, au terme de laquelle Ie familier aura retrouve son etrangete. (FRANCES FORTIER) J. Alan B. Somerset, editor. Records of Early English Drama: Shropshire Volume 1: The Records. Volume 2: Editorial Apparatus University of Toronto Press. xii, 834. $175:00 cloth The most recent addition to the REED series is surprisingly long and full, given the largely rural, sparsely populated region it covers. Shropshire is in the north-west Midland area of England, on the border of Wales. Over half of the records collected here are from the centrally located town of Shrewsbury, on the Severn River. The next most important borough was the old Yorkist stronghold of Ludlow, at roughly half the size through most of the period examined here. Both centres sponsored productions by touring players, including the chartered London companies; information concerning dramatic patrons and travelling companies (compiled by Arleane Ralph and Margaret Owens) is neatly laid out in the second volume, and indexed to the records proper. Both centres also sponsored a variety of local productions, performed indoors and out - most notably the semicircular amphitheatre (not the circular site once assumed by theatre historians) at the dry quarry outside the walls of Shrewsbury. However, the bulk of this collection records more marginally dramatic entertainment, including what Somerset himself refers to as activities 'beyond the fringe' of theatre, such as travelling bearwards and freak shows, as well as maypole ceremonies and morris dancing. Accusations of (and excommunications for) dancing on the sabbath appear with tedious regularity (as they do in REED: HerefordlWorcestershire), yet these are of a piece with the occasional charges of dramatic performance on the sabbath. Moreover, as with the 'embarras de richesses' that Somerset has found concerning Shrewsbury's Shearmen's Tree dispute of 1589-91 explained at length in the volume's Introduction - all such records reveal tensions between religious authority and traditional custom that had a major impact on attitudes towards mainstream theatrical activity. Overall, Somerset seems to have opted for fullness of context: for instance, a single line regarding payment of minstrels at a dinner for Shrewsbury town officials justifies inclusion of an entire menu, giving a welcome sense of the overall occasion. On the other hand, the single record for Prees village, included only for its passing reference to horse-racing, might indicate the far bounds of relevance. Stilt it is always difficult to say what HUMANITIES 187 will prove relevant, or how. Somerset himself queries the authenticity of a document he includes here as appendix 2: I A Medieval Legend of the Virgin' because it refers to an otherwise unattested annual gathering of minstrels at Shrewsbury. Yet we only know that Milton's Comus was performed at Ludlow Castle from the printed text itself - the masque is mentioned only once in these records, not by name, and only because of a payment made by the high bailiff in connection with the event. If I have any complaints, they involve very minor sins of omission. Finding translations of individual records (by Abigail Ann Young) is inconvenient at best - running headers indicating place names would be a welcome addition (the records volume itself has place and date headers; REED: Cambridge has date headers both for the records and for the translation section). Also, a map of Ludlow would have been a useful inclusion - there are two for Shrewsbury (while the inset enlargement of one section of the Shropshire map adds nothing at all). Otherwise the apparatus is a joy to use. Somerset's introductory material is lengthy, relative to previous REED volumes, but always informative, and gives the overview discouraged by the otherwise useful place-by-place format of the records volume itself. The compactly detailed section dealing with 'Historical Background' is notably well linked throughout to questions of dramatic activity, while the section on 'Drama, Music, and Popular Customs' constitutes an admirable collection of short essays that, like these two volumes as a...