Cover -- Copyright and licence -- Title Page -- A Note on the Author -- Introduction -- 2. The new theatres -- 3. Attitudes to theatre and players. -- 4. Audiences and expectations -- 5. The Acting Space: Limitations and resources -- 6. Props -- 7. 'A Play toward': the companies, actors and acting -- 8. Kinds of plays -- History -- Tragedy -- Revenge tragedy -- Pastoral -- Comedy -- 9. Epilogue -- Further Reading -- Appendix 1: Some dramatists working in the period 1585-1625 -- Francis Beaumont (1584/5-1616) -- George Chapman (ca. 1559-May 12, 1634) -- Henry Chettle (1564?-1607?) -- Thomas Dekker (c. 1572-1632) -- Fletcher, John (1579-1625) -- Robert Greene (?1560-1592) -- Jasper Heywood (1535-1598) -- Thomas Heywood (died c. 1650), -- Ben Jonson (1572-1637) -- Thomas Kyd (1558-94) -- John Lyly (c. 1553-1606) -- Christopher Marlowe (1564-93) -- John Marston (1576-1634) -- Thomas Middleton (1580-1627) -- George Peele (1558?-1598) -- William Shakespeare (1564-1616) -- Cyril Tourneur (c. 1575-1626) -- John Webster (c. 1580-c. 1625) -- War of the theatres -- Appendix 2: An Outline Chronology of Political Events (with dates of some important plays on historical themes) -- Appendix 3: Hyperlinked Materials -- Appendix 4: Mirandola's Oration on the Dignity of Man -- Conceptual Index -- Other Insights.