Oxford (University and City)

The Records of Early English Drama (REED) series aims to establish the context for the great drama of Shakespeare and his contemporaries by examining the historical manuscripts that provide external evidence of drama, secular music, and other communal entertainment and ceremony from the Middle Ages until Puritan legislation closed the London theatres in 1642. Oxford (University and City), the series' latest volume, brings together, for the first time, all of the evidence for performance in the whole of Oxford, including colleges, halls, university, town government, parish churches, craft guilds, and ecclesiastical courts.

The collection includes unique eyewitness accounts of performances of professional players including a description of the death of Desdemona in Shakespeare's Othello. As with all volumes in the REED series, Oxford (University and City) is transcribed from the original sources, edited, and presented with explanatory notes, translations, and a general introduction. The edition complements the material contained in REED Cambridge (UTP, 1988), and allows scholars to better understand academic drama in its local and collegiate contexts and to compare and contrast the nature of academic drama in both cities.

Co-published with the British Museum as part of a reference series on English history, theater, and music up to 1642, this two-volume set presents records for Oxford (both the university and the city) arranged chronologically by institution of origin (rather than the document's current location). The entries identify the document quoted and transcribe the relevant passage. (Because they've already been published, documents in the Bodleian Library are listed but not described.) The texts are in old English and Latin; modern English translations are in v.2. Activities covered include traveling players and minstrels, civic ceremonies, decree feasts, and the royal visit of 1636; and much of the material comes from account books that list expenses and payments to participants. The documents are described in detail in v.2 as part of the reference's extensive explanatory material, which also includes a history of Oxford, and of drama, music and ceremonial customs in the area. The many substantial appendices include maps, cast lists, two plays and a progress, a description of the anti-theatrical controversy, glossaries of Latin and English terms, an index of members of Oxford U., and a comprehensive index. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Alexandra F. Johnston is a professor in the Department of English at the University of Toronto. Diana Wyatt is an independent scholar living in Oxfordshire. John Elliott is a professor emeritus in the Department of English at Syracuse University. Alan Nelson is a professor in the Department of English at the University of California, Berkeley.