ABSTRACT
This volume brings together a selection of the major articles of David Mills (1938-2013), which along with similar volumes by Alexandra F. Johnston, Peter Meredith and Meg Twycross makes up a set of "Shifting Paradigms in Early English Drama Studies". Mills was one of these four key scholars whose work has changed what is known about English medieval drama and theatre. He made major contributions to understanding English medieval theatre in the widest sense but more specifically to the nature and development of medieval plays and their performance at Chester. The scope of his work from manuscript to performance has created new knowledge and insights brought about by his remarkable technical skill as an editor and researcher. His texts of the Chester Cycle of Mystery Plays have become the standard works. In the light of this outstanding research the volume is comprised of four sections: 1. Editors and Editing; 2. Cultural Contexts; 3. Staging and Performance; 4. Criticism and Evaluation. An editorial introduction opens the work.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part 1|43 pages
Editors and Editing
chapter 1|20 pages
Modern Editions of Medieval English Plays (1991)
chapter 3|7 pages
Medievalism and Revival: Editors and Editions (1998)
part 2|66 pages
Cultural Contexts
chapter 4|20 pages
Approaches to Medieval Drama 1 (1969)
chapter 5|17 pages
Music and Musicians in Chester: A Summary Account (1997 for 1995)
chapter 6|15 pages
Chester's Midsummer Show: Creation and Adaptation (1996 for 1989)
chapter 7|10 pages
A Tale of Two Cities: Chester and Coventry in the 1490s (2010)
part 3|66 pages
Staging and Performance
chapter 8|24 pages
The Theatres of Everyman (1995)
chapter 10|13 pages
Characterisation in the English Mystery Cycles: A Critical Prologue 1 (1983)
part 4|46 pages
Criticism and Evaluation
chapter 12|10 pages
The ‘Now’ of ‘Then’ (2002 for 2000)
chapter 15|10 pages
‘The Towneley Plays’ or the ‘Towneley Cycle’? 1 (1986)
part 5|72 pages
Audience – Defenders and Opponents
chapter 16|13 pages
Who Are Our Customers? The Audience for Chester's Plays 1 (1999 for 1998)
chapter 17|9 pages
Where Have All the Players Gone?: A Chester Problem 1 (1998)
chapter 18|12 pages
Chester's Covenant Theology (2000)
chapter 19|15 pages
‘Some Precise Cittizins’: Puritan Objections to Chester's Plays (1998)
chapter 20|18 pages
Some Theological Issues in Chester's Plays (2007)
part 6|60 pages
Views on the Antiquarians