This innovative study examines emotional responses to socio-economic pressures in early modern England, as they are revealed in plays, historical narratives and biographical accounts of the period. These texts yield fascinating insights into the various, often unpredictable, ways in which people coped with the exigencies of credit, debt, mortgaging and capital ventures. Leinwand discusses plays by Shakespeare, Jonson, Middleton, Heywood and Massinger, pairing them with writings about the finances of royalty and aristocrats, privateers, theatrical entrepreneurs and debtors.

Massinger: Critical Heritage (Critical Heritage Series)

The plays of Philip Massinger (1583-1640) have been a focus of controversy since their creation. In their own time, the plays contributed to contemporary arguments about appropriate dramatic language. In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries they were crucial to the rediscovery of Renaissance drama outside Shakespeare. Today, they are at the center of recent reevaluation of the politics of seventeenth century theatre.