Reading Texts for Performance and Performances as Texts: Shifting Paradigms in Early English Drama Studies

This volume brings together nineteen important articles by Pamela M. King, one of the foremost British scholars working on Early English Drama. Unique to this collection are five articles on the ’living’ traditions of performances in Spain, discussing their origins and the modes of production that are used. Several articles use modern literary theory on aspects of early drama, whilst others consider drama in the context of late medieval poetry. The volume also includes a rich collection of articles on English scriptural plays from surviving manuscripts.

Pamela M. King was one of the founding members of Medieval English Theatre. She has held chairs in Medieval Studies at St Martin’s College, Lancashire (now the University of Cumbria) and the University of Bristol, and is currently the holder of a fractional chair at the University of Glasgow. Her 2006 monograph The York Mystery Cycle and the Worship of the City won both the David Bevington Award for Best New Book in Early Drama Studies, and the Beatrice White Prize from the English Association.

Alexandra F. Johnston is a professor emeritus of the Department of English, University of Toronto. She was the founding director of Records of Early English Drama in 1976. She co-edited the first edition of the REED series, York, with Dr Margaret Rogerson (née Dorrell) in 1979 and the second on-line edition in the REED series, Berkshire, in 2018. Many of her articles have appeared in journals and collections of essays. Her volume of selected articles was the fourth to appear in this series