ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author argues that portraits is only by investigating the early modern English material and visual cultures that the meanings of staged portraits can be fully, or at least satisfactorily, ascertained. A monograph on staged statues in early modern English drama has yet to appear: it may be interesting to compare the staging of sculpture with the results of his analysis. Perhaps more importantly, no study has been devoted thus far to staged portraits in Restoration drama. Even a cursory research of play-texts from the second half of the seventeenth century indicates that staged portraits were no rarity in Restoration drama. Whereas the portraits in Shakespeare’s works have been receiving increasing attention, the information gained from them cannot be complete if one does not consider the dramatic output of his contemporaries. The portraits presented on stage in early modern English drama have certainly influenced the history of drama and literature.
