ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the expectations that playbooks’ paratexts encouraged early modern playreaders to bring to their reading. It first explores the implications for readers of the frequent title page claim that a play is printed ‘As’ it was performed, then hypothesises what kind of textual content readers may have been led to expect by the title page presence of an author’s name – specifically, that of ‘William Shakespeare’. The chapter subsequently considers the significations for readers of two further title page paratexts: the genre indication and the Latin motto. This last, it is argued, worked in conjunction with other internal paratexts to construct early modern commercial drama as poetry. As a consequence, genre indications could create unrealistic expectations regarding dramatic form and content in readers whose knowledge of poetic theory was transmitted by works that ignored the exigencies of professional performance in early modern London. In response, as the chapter goes on to argue, the internal paratexts of printed professional plays proffered their own theoretical framework to encourage readers to pass favourable aesthetic judgement upon these plays. Finally, the chapter considers the various ways in which dramatic paratexts offered up a reading experience that was either profitable or pleasurable – or both.
