Intelligence and Metadrama in the Early Modern Theatre

Explores intrinsic connections between early modern intelligencers and metadrama in the plays of Shakespeare's contemporaries
Intelligence and Metadrama in the Early Modern Theatre offers insight into why the early modern stage abounds with informer and intelligencer figures. Analysing both the nature of intelligence at the time and the metadrama that such characters generate, Angus highlights the significance of intrigue and corruption to dramatic narrative and structure. His study of metadrama reveals some of the most fundamental questions being posed about the legitimacy of authority, authorship and audience interpretation in this seminal era of English drama.
Bill Angus is Lecturer at Massey University.

Bill teaches at Massey University in New Zealand. His research is mainly in Shakespeare and the early modern period. He is currently exploring representations of the crossroads a place of transformative power and spiritual binding, in early modern and other cultures. This encompasses histories of wandering, place magic, judicial execution, the regulation of burial, and theories of space and liminality.

Acknowledgements; Introduction: Errant Intelligence: The Devil's Own; 1. 'Subtle sleights': Amity and the Informer in Damon and Pithias; 2. The Parasites of Machiavel; 3. The Knight of the Burning Pestle and the Menace of the Audience; 4. The Reluctant Informer: Humanising the Beast; 5. Metadrama and the Murderous Nature of Authority; 6. The Burning Issue: Metadrama and Contested Authority in Chettle's Hoffman; Conclusion: No-one Is There: Ubiquity and Invisibility; Index.