ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that mimetic drama in the early modern period was understood to have a greater effect on audiences than non-mimetic drama. Thus, plays throughout the period attempted to exert anti-mimetic energy on their plays, mostly through epilogues and prologues. These stage-orations frame the plays as non-mimetic in order to structure the playgoing experience as non-reactive. If the audience thinks they are watching a piece of fantasy that has no relationship to their own lives, they will be less likely to respond actively to the performance. All early modern stage-orations are discussed, but special attention is payed to John Lyly’s and Ben Jonson’s plays, which are particularly fond of producing anti-mimetic affects through stage-orations. The prologue to John Fletcher’s Rule a Wife and Have a Wife is also highlighted here because of its complexity and interest in anti-mimesis.
