The majority of Shakespeare's plays have at least one clown figure making an appearance. These characters range from rogues who say only a line or two, to impor

Focusing on the clown Will Kemp, this book shows how Shakespeare and other dramatists wrote specific roles as vehicles for him.

From the late-medieval period through to the seventeenth century, English theatrical clowns carried a weighty cultural significance, only to have it stripped fr

Richard Preiss presents a lively and provocative study of how the ever-popular stage clown shaped early modern playhouse theatre.

This volume offers a lively introduction to the major issues of the stage and print history of the plays, and discusses what a Shakespeare play actually is.