Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Chapter 1 The Theater Controversies in Early Modern England

Playhouse, Prayer-house, Profit, and Plague

Actors and Audience

Chapter 2 True Performing and Verses of Feigning Love: A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Early Modern English Antitheatricality

"Verses of Feigning Love"—Poetry in A Midsummer Night’s Dream

"True Performing"—Theater in A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Conclusion: Poets and Players

Chapter 3 Hamlet as Shakespeare’s Defense of Theater

Ethical and Ontological Concerns about Theater

The Laughter of the Barren Spectators

Conclusion

Chapter 4 "In My Power": The Tempest as Shakespeare’s Antitheatrical Vision

Theater and Spectacle in The Tempest and in the Antitheatrical Discourse

Music in The Tempest

In Your Power: Shakespeare’s Defense of Music and Drama

Afterword Poets, Pipers, and Players

Index

About the Author

Reut Barzilai is a lecturer at the University of Haifa, Israel. She has published articles in the academic journals Shakespeare and Multicultural Shakespeare and written several study guides on Shakespeare for the Open University.