ABSTRACT
For a long time theatre and charlatanism lived together, exchanging roles and helping one another. Players and charlatans travelled jointly and, when necessary, players became charlatans and charlatans players. This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The chapter explores some of the implications of that 'philosophical threat' which seem to be peculiar to the English context in the Tudor and early Stuart period. It attempts an interpretation of the historical data in the light of what appears as an almost endemic attitude in early modern England, 'the antitheatrical prejudice'. Each object of study calls for a specific critical approach and for distinct analytical tools; and that indeed, in the most felicitous cases, certain objects of study end up by redefining and reshaping (or even invalidating) the very critical and analytical tools which we expected would be adequate for their interpretation.
