This book is the winner of the Beatrice White Prize, awarded annually for outstanding scholarly work in English literature before 1590, for 2001. Drama and performance in Ireland call to mind the present rather than the ancient past, yet Irish dramatic and performative traditions were far richer before the coming of Cromwell than has generally been appreciated. This book aims to repair a deficit in our knowledge. It draws together all known documentary evidence for drama and performance in Ireland up until the closure of the first public theatre in Dublin in 1641. Historical documents, many never before published, are given pride of place, but a generous selection of pertinent literary sources has been included among the Appendices. A historical overview of Irish drama and performance prefaces the record collection, and descriptions are given of every manuscript and early printed book from which the records featuring in the book have been taken, as well as translations of items recorded in Irish, Latin or French. The book thus provides an invaluable database for a range of disciplines, from students of Irish culture to social historians, theatre historians and musicologists.
ALAN J. FLETCHER is Lecturer in English Language and medieval Literature, University College Dublin.