ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the words of Richard Helgerson in his Self-Crowned Laureates: "To some extent, each beginning— beginning of individual works as well as beginnings of careers— brings a renewal of self-presentational presence. As the playwright steps forward resolutely in the paratexts, so should the documents themselves be so presented in editions of the plays. Surely the paratexts occupy a liminal space between the physical and the symbolic, as they occupy a space between the author and his imagined patron and reader. Writing, plays included, creates and assists with the circulation of authority and the circulation of culture's social energy. Textual patronage appropriates and accommodates playwrights' texts, enabling them to function in the marketplace and providing a means to express gratitude for support from patrons and readers, known and unknown. The chapter suggests that the process of publication and textual patronage did offer propitiatory benefits for both playwrights and patrons.
