Douglas - REED in Review Essays in Celebration of the First Twenty-Five Years

REED IN REVIEW:
ESSAYS IN CELEBRATION OF THE FIRST TWENTY-FIVE YEARS

STUDIES IN EARLY ENGLISH DRAMA 8
General Editor: J.A.B. Somerset

Essays in Celebration of the First Twenty-Five Years

Edited by Audrey Douglas and Sally-Beth MacLean

University of Toronto Press Incorporated 2006

Toronto Buffalo London

Printed in Canada

ISBN-13: 978-0-8020-3827-2

ISBN-10: 0-8020-3827-1

Printed on acid-free paper

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

REED in review : essays in celebration of the first twenty-five years / edited by Audrey Douglas and Sally-Beth MacLean

(Studies in early English drama)

Includes index.

ISBN 0-8020-3827-1

1. Records of Early English Drama (Firm). 2. Theater England History Research. 3. Performing arts England History Research. 4. Theater England History Sources. 5. Performing arts England History Sources. I. Douglas, Audrey W., 1935 II. MacLean, Sally-Beth III. Series.

PN2583.R43 2006 790.2072 C2006-900940-6

The editors gratefully acknowledge the financial assistance provided by a grant from the Victoria University Senate Research Committee.

University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial assistance to its publishing program of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council.

University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial support for its publishing activities of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program (BPIDP).

Dedicated to Scott McMillin (19342006),

who thought that the best seat in the house was standing with the groundlings and who deeply appreciated those from Shakespeare to Sondheim who succeeded in combining the popular entertainment of their day with high art.

Please note: full bibliographic details for citations are provided in the main text and notes with the exception of books and articles included in John Lehrs Select Bibliography, which are referred to by short titles.

AUDREY DOUGLAS and SALLY-BETH MACLEAN

In 1978, almost two years after its foundation, REED convened a scholarly gathering that in part marked its first publication, two volumes for York, edited by Alexandra F. Johnston and Margaret Dorrell Rogerson: this collection primarily focused on the organization and presentation of the citys late medieval cycle drama. A number of those attending the gathering were actively associated with REED; others had a long-standing interest in exploring the various problems that a project dedicated to the transcription of early dramatic records must needs solve. Papers, comments, and wide-ranging discussion at this bravely titled First Colloquium were thus marked by a mixture of anticipation and speculation tempered by caution and received wisdom.

It was not until 2002, however, that what might be termed the second such colloquium was held, as part of REEDs by now regular participation in the International Medieval Congress at Leeds University. In this year the REED sessions were designed to allow critical reflection on the past, present, and future of the project as it marked the passing of its twenty-fifth year. Essays amplifying the content of selected papers given at that time form the major part of the present volume, which in turn follows the same tripartite organization. Particular efforts were made in the conference sessions to detail the founding and early years of REED (

Obviously, by 2000 much water had passed under the bridge and the direction of its eventual flow was not entirely anticipated by those who made up the First Colloquium. The hopes and concerns expressed on that occasion, firmly embedded in REEDs founding circumstances, are detailed by Alexandra Johnston in her opening essay; Sally-Beth MacLean and Abigail Young go on to explain the challenges faced in the projects first decade. As Johnston explains, advances in the nor ever rely unquestioningly on antiquarian accounts; and it would not be bound by the time frame of a Malone Society publication, although the guidelines for transcription jointly agreed upon with Richard Proudfoot, the Malone Society general editor, were to provide a solid foundation for the fledgling series. Instead extensive research, backed by specialized support and carried out on a topographical basis, would have as its goal the publication of all surviving performance records up to and including the year 1642, thus crossing the old traditional divide between medieval and Renaissance studies to establish one undiscriminating continuum up to the closing of the public theatres in London.

By late 1976, in an enlightened period that fostered the establishment of mega-projects such as REED, solid funding from the Canada Council had established the project on a sound financial footing, at least for the next decade. Scholars who had collaborated in REEDs foundation continued to lend welcome support in its formative years (see below, Johnston, Appendix, pp. 325). Recent doctoral graduates with targeted skills were recruited as staff members, bibliographic research under Ian Lancashires valuable and experienced direction was in place, and a supportive university press in Toronto provided welcome encouragement to the end goal of publication. The expectation, then, at the First Colloquium, was a keen research impetus that would eventually uncover and publish records able to throw light on a variety of questions pertaining to early drama everything from the relationship between text and performance to the smallest details of performance practice, such as acting styles, the payment scale for actors, and the determination of their status as professional or amateur.

At the same time, however, experienced scholars at the First Colloquium voiced their concerns about the nature of the research and editorial process: for instance, the importance of defining the primacy of particular classes of records for research purposes; of acknowledging and investigating both the documentary and topographical contexts of transcribed records (in spite of research time constraints); of producing accurate transcriptions, informed by context and scholarship; and of finding ways to deal, especially in translation, with the confusing plethora of Latin terms the records throw up in relation to performers. There was general agreement that the nature of the evidence in most cases was, and would be, quantitative, not primarily theatrical and only obliquely informative the perennial account book (Astington, 93); hence the need for informed but distanced analysis and an overview that would, among other things, integrate the received wisdom about the late medieval drama as a scholarly discipline with factual data found in the Record Office (Coldewey, 120).