Product Description

This book describes the role of Elizabeth I, the aristocratic patrons of the players' companies and the Elizabethan magus John Dee in the concept and design of the Elizabethan playhouse. The author has analysed drawings and archaeological materials which throw a completely new light on the concepts underlying the design of the theatres of Elizabeth London, relating Renaissance concepts of proportion and the mystery of creation to the world of aristocratic patronage. Her research has attracted powerful support from the Museum of London and the Science Museum, as well as from Mark Rylance, director of the Bankside Globe, and is certain to cause a stir in the Shakespearean world. The book offers a wide-ranging view of the nature of the Elizabethan theatre and its relationship to the Elizabethan world picture. As such it goes beyond anything currently available on the subject and will appeal to all those interested in Elizabethan theatre as historians, students of Shakespeare or students of theatre history. The debate about the site and size of e.g. the original Globe is constantly fuelled by new discoveries and speculations. Joy Hancox's research is receiving ever-growing support and in one way or another is going to influence the way people think about Shakespeare's theatre in the future.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #380546 in Books
• Published on: 2001-04-24
• Format: Illustrated
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

About the Author
Joy Hancox is the author of The Byrom Papers (Jonathan Cape, hb 1992; pb 1997), where she first proposed an interpretation of Elizabethan theatres based on magical and hermetic concepts.

Customer Reviews

Not What It Appears To Be.
I so want to be convinced by this wonderful read, but I'm not yet. Hancox makes some remarkable discoveries, especially concerning the 72ft width that keeps recurring in theatre plans from 1576-1599. Back in the late 1980s John Orrell claimed to have made similar remarkable discoveries about the Globe being 99ft across. I recall being equally convinced then. I am concerned that Hancox celebrates so many coincidences with regard to the business speculations of Elizabthan aristocrats like Derby, Leicester and others. Whilst equally struck by the coincidences (like the fact that many seem to have been involved in Tintern Abbey) I cant help feeling that England's early 17th century aristocratic circle was probably pretty intimate. It may, therefore, be no coincidence that they were all involved in this or that business scheme together. I am equally disturbed by the lack of reference to C.Walter Hodges (The Globe Restored etc.) who concluded way back in 1960 that the Globe probably measured no more than 80ft across. Finally I am troubled by Hancox's omission of any reference to Hollar whose "Long View of London" (1644) is the basis for the assumption that the Globe probably had more than 8 sides, albeit no more than 20. How can Hancox dismiss Hollar's accuracy (as proven by Walter Hodges, Dr. Barlow and others) without any detailed consideration of his work? Hollar drew buildings extremely accurately. He drew a smooth-sided (not 8-sided) second Globe in 1642 and a similar bird's eye view of Davies' Bear Ring in his post-Restoration plan of London. Either Hollar's work is worthless (which it must be if we are to accept Hancox's view of the Globe) or it is accurate. If the latter then Hancox's work with regard to the Globe theatre is at least questionable. Finally, I find Hancox's attempts to interpret the meaning of Shakespeare's plays very disturbing. She has overlooked Shakespeare's emphasis on "seeming": we are not who we appear to be. Neither, I am afraid, is some of Hancox's thesis.

A curious mistake
Sadly Joy Hancox's interpretations of Elizabethan theatres are absed on amisreading of aset of curious 18thc geometrical patterns. One has aheading "the dimensions of the globe" which she assumes to refer to the theatre. Another has a phrase she reads as "Starrs mall" which she takes to be part of theatre bulding. Mall was not used in this sense in the 16thc. The phrase actually reads "the brass setts for the greater and lesser starrs in all: 13" - it is referring to the brass fittings of an astronomical instrument - an orrery perhaps.
In this case "globe" must be a...globe.
The documents are genuine - I've see nthem - and desperately need an expert to look at them.