Though individual prologues and epilogues have been treated in depth, very little scholarship has been published on early modern framing texts as a whole. Combining original analysis with carefully compiled, comprehensive reference data, the author fills a gap in the literature by examining the origins of these texts and investigating their growing importance and influence in the theatre of the period.

Introduction: Matters of Viewpoint; Chapter 1 Matters of Definition; Chapter 2 'Prologos' to Prologue in Classical Drama; Chapter 3 Epilogue Origins and Medieval Framing Texts; Chapter 4 'Sit, see and hear': Prologues, Epilogues and the Dichotomized Audience; Chapter 5 'Take your places, ladies': Prologues, Epilogues and the Female Spectator; Chapter 6 The Framing Text - Matters of Custom; conclusion Conclusion: Identifying the Framing Text;

Brian Schneider is the Administrative Assistant to the Lexis project at the University of Manchester, UK.