Pageantry in the Shakespearean Theater focuses on political, social, and aesthetic issues to reveal the enormous influence of civic celebration on Renaissance theater. Ranging across Shakespeare’s canon and including the work of his fellow playwrights, this collection of twelve essays considers tournaments, royal entries, Lord Mayor’s Shows, funeral processions progress entertainments, court masques, and more.

Recreates the splendor and color of the civic celebrations for which London is still nonpareil . . . and offers philosophical interpretations and specific explications of its subject that make this handsome volume valuable for staging and study alike. One is indeed grateful for Pageantry in the Shakespearean Theater, which contributes to our present understanding of the subject, points directions for further research, and testifies to the rewards of investigation in this fascinating field.

A very welcome contribution to our knowledge of the relationship between London street pageantry and the drama of the period.

DAVID M. BERGERON is a professor emeritus of English at the University of Kansas. He is author of numerous publications, including Practicing Renaissance Scholarship: Plays and Pageants, Patrons and Politics, English Civic Pageantry 1558–1642, and Textual Patronage and English Drama, 1570–1640.