ABSTRACT
The introductory chapter establishes the originality and timeliness of the project. In exploring the depiction of household servants in early modern domestic tragedy, the book advances existing knowledge on servants in early modern drama by focusing on the servants employed by families of middling, rather than aristocratic, status. Previous studies have examined servants in Shakespearean plays who tend to be upper servants employed by the high and mighty. The servants examined in this book, by contrast, this chapter shows, are those who serve non-elite families. Examining the master-servant relationships in these plays thus opens a window to the meanings and consequences of disorder for relations of mastery and service in the homes of the middling sorts.
