Cheshire (including Chester).
Records of Early English Drama, 19. 2 vols. Edited by Elizabeth Baldwin,
Lawrence M. Clopper, and David Mills. Pp. ccxxv + 1231. Toronto and London:
Toronto University Press and the British Library, 2007. $400.
This is the latest set of volumes from the Records of Early English Drama
project, which seeks to edit and present "all records before 1642 of dramatic,
musical, and ceremonial activity" in England (p. cxciii), and, in its sister
project RED (Records of Early Drama), in Wales and Scotland. The Cheshire
edition "incorporates an updated and revised edition" of Clopper's 1979
REED: Chester. In these latest volumes, activity regarded as dramatic
"ranges from visiting professional players to the Chester Whitsun play to
plays performed by the scholars and the townsmen in Congleton to isolated
incidents involving mimicry." Music and musicians "cover the entire social
range" outside of ecclesiastical music. The selection criteria for "ceremonial
activity has been limited to secular events." Visits by royalty or nobility
are included only if they "were accompanied by mimetic ceremony,
music, or drama," although a list of all such visits is included in an appendix.
Also included are animal sports such as "bearbaiting, bullbaiting, cockfighting,
and horseracing" (p. cxciii).
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