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The volume analyzes staging practices at court and in public and private theatres during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, tracing the development of scenery, stage machinery, audience arrangements, and managerial technique. It compares continental precedents in perspective and decoration with English practice, weighs internal stage-directions against external records to reconstruct probable arrangements, and distinguishes courtly presentations from regular theatrical production. The work concludes with chapters on the printing of plays and on playwrights, and is accompanied by diagrams, illustrations, bibliographical notes, and appendices that assemble documentary evidence and critical references.
I have found it convenient, especially in Appendix A, to use the symbol < following a date, to indicate an uncertain date not earlier than that named, and the symbol > followed by a date, to indicate an uncertain date not later than that named. Thus 1903 <> 23 would indicate the composition date of any part of this book. I have sometimes placed the date of a play in italics, where it was desirable to indicate the date of production rather than publication.