Acknowledgments
This book began in 2014, courtesy of the Fulbright Commission. For six memorable months, I enjoyed the intellectual camaraderie of Juan Antonio Prieto-Pablos, Manuel José Gómez Lara, and María José Mora, all members of the Restoration Comedy Project at the University of Seville. Their support encouraged me to undertake what seemed initially like an impossible project. I also want to pay homage to Seville, a city that turns into a veritable stage set every year for Semana Santa, that extraordinary display of religious devotion and theatrical excess. I had the opportunity to go behind the scenes to see firsthand how the cofradías (brotherhoods) fundraise, train, and rehearse months in advance for this annual event, and that experience prompted my thinking about how memory, contingencies, and economics shape theatrical outcomes.
While most of the material in the following pages has not been published before – a choice on my part – there is inevitably some tangential overlap with articles and book chapters published earlier in my career. Taking a cue from Pierre Bourdieu, I long ago considered patronage as a form of symbolic capital in “The Restoration Dedication as Symbolic Capital,” Studies in Eighteenth-Century Culture 20 (1990): 27–42. I had also looked at how patronage shaped authorial careers in “Patronage and the Dramatic Marketplace under Charles I and II,” Yearbook for English Studies 21 (1991): 137–52. The analysis of patronage in this book, however, draws more upon recent work in network theory and behavioral economics than the New Historicism that inspired those youthful efforts. The discussion in Chapter 5 of Dryden’s theatrical career has its origins in an essay, “‘Betwixt Two Ages Cast’: Theatrical Dryden,” which I wrote for Enchanted Ground: Dryden Revisited, edited by Jayne Lewis and Maximillian E. Novak (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004). And my treatment of Restoration actresses in Chapter 6 builds upon the chapter I wrote for Susan J. Owen’s collection A Companion to Restoration Drama (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 2001).
To several friends I owe special thanks. Anna Battigelli has been a tireless advocate for this book from its inception. She provided invaluable comments on every chapter and, perhaps even more importantly, bolstered my spirits when life seemed a bit much. Diana Solomon offered up her usual good cheer and smarts, in addition to welcome glimpses over Zoom of Abby, the wonder corgi. Kathie Lesko provided a welcoming refuge in Pasadena, California, whenever I worked at the Huntington Library. Many is the night we stayed up late chatting about all things Restoration. Juan Antonio Prieto-Pablos shared with me his vast knowledge of late seventeenth-century staging practices. Because of his generosity and oversight, Chapter 3 is far less speculative than it might have been. Profesora Pilar Cuder-Domínguez, his wife and my dear friend, endured our nerdy forays into the workings of playhouse architecture and moveable scenery – although not for too long. When she tired of shutters and stagehands, I was whisked away on shopping trips to Massimo Dutti or El Corte Inglés to ensure that I looked like a properly turned out Sevillana and not a disheveled American academic. Manuel (“Manu”) José Gómez Lara doled out smart questions and bear hugs in equal measure. Richard Sha, my colleague at American University, talked me through emotion and cognitive theory. I also owe thanks to the Emotion Theory Reading Group he co-organized at American University with Marianne Noble, another talented and supportive faculty member. The monthly meetings drew faculty from across disciplines and modeled the very best of academic inquiry. We benefited especially from the presence of Dr. Jane Flax, a Freudian psychoanalyst whose astonishing intellectual range pushed us to think more deeply about the readings. Justine Zapin brought her professional background in theatre and music to a seminar I taught in spring of 2017 on Restoration and eighteenth-century theatre entitled “Sex, Money, and Idiots in Power.” She was the best of teaching assistants and is now the closest of friends. Jonathan Loesberg, my now retired former department head at American University, and his wife, Gail Grella, have for many years sustained me with their companionship, conversation, and excellent French wines. And, finally, credit goes to Hanna Grieb, who fact-checked and proofread the manuscript. Her queries and corrections improved the final product immeasurably; any remaining errors are, of course, my own.
Restoration and eighteenth-century drama and theatre are a delightfully supportive cohort, and colleagues have over the years posed thoughtful queries at conferences and made helpful comments over dinner. Special thanks go to Fiona Ritchie, Lisa A. Freeman, Brian Corman, Laura Rosenthal, Jean Marsden, Bob Markley, Mark Vareschi, Misty Anderson, Jessica Munns, Mita Choudhury, Anne-Sophie Noel, Mattie Burkert, Richard Schoch, Amanda L. Eubanks Winkler, Stephen Watkins, Elaine M. McGirr, and Chelsea Phillips. I also want to pay homage to the late Robert D. Hume, Robert Folkenflik, and Howard Weinbrot, all of whom asked incisive questions and offered encouragement. This project also benefited from two separate, albeit overlapping, events at the Folger Shakespeare Library. In August 2018, I joined five other scholar/theatre practitioners for what came to be known as “Camp Davenant”: an advisory group for the Folger Theatre’s production of Davenant’s Macbeth. This was the first professional staging of Davenant’s script since the eighteenth century and considerable thanks go to Richard Schoch and Amanda Eubanks Winkler for giving us the unprecedented opportunity to see our ideas tested out in rehearsal and performance. Shortly after that show opened, I joined Joe Roach’s seminar, “What Acting Is,” sponsored by the Folger Institute. It goes without saying that the insights of the other participants, along with Joe’s inimitable blend of deep knowledge and good humor, helped immeasurably with Chapter 6, which explores how the duopoly gave rise to the celebrity actor.
Librarians and archivists, both in the United States and in the United Kingdom, provided invaluable assistance. The staff at the Folger Shakespeare Library, the Henry E. Huntington Library, the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, the British Museum, the Public Record Office, Kew, and the Theatre and Performance Collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum Library generously fielded questions and sorted out the occasional cataloguing conundrum. The librarians at Bender Library at American University were especially helpful during the pandemic in making certain I had access to databases to which we do not normally subscribe.
I also want to thank my commissioning editor at Cambridge University Press, Bethany Thomas, for her oversight and sound advice throughout the publication process. Particular gratitude is due to Professor David Roberts, who was one of my two readers. His was the most exacting report I have ever received on a major project. While I baulked initially at several suggestions, almost invariably Professor Roberts’s instincts were right. Because of his care, the book is improved immeasurably.
And, finally, I dedicate this book to the memory of my late, beloved uncle, Stephen Lafer. The last few years have brought moments of joy – especially my time in Spain – but also unspeakable sorrow. Of the many family members and friends now gone, the loss of Steve is the one that haunts daily. Quite simply, he was everything to me: a surrogate father and the very best of friends. From the sidelines many years ago, he quietly made sure that a scrappy, troubled teenager worked hard and won the scholarships that would open doors to a life not yet fathomed. It is to Steve too that I owe my love of theatre and performance. At his side, I saw my first Shakespeare, my first ballets, and my first avant-garde plays, and first glimpsed non-Western theatrical forms, such as kabuki and Peking opera. Requiescat in pace et in amore.
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