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Bibliography: leaves 598-620.

Bibliography: leaves 598-620 / 620 leaves ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of History, 1989

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Some of the older actors of the Restoration provided a link between the pre- and post-Commonwealth stages by preserving their craft during the years from 1642 to 1660, despite the harsh and numerous restrictions enacted by the Parliament. Some of the younger players, on the other hand, quickly mastered their art and continued the tradition preserved for them by men such as Charles Hart and Michael Mohun. The greatest actors and actresses of the period certainly influenced the direction of Restoration drama in several ways. Thomas Betterton and Elizabeth Barry were so skilled that on several occasions leading dramatists asked their advice about dialogue, character development, and stage business. Other actors, such as Samuel Sandford and Colley Cibber, developed into great character actors, and the dramatists created roles especially suited to their talents. William Congreve 's admiration for Anne Bracegirdle's talent and beauty perhaps contributed substantially to the creation of the character of Millimant in The Way of the World. Actors such as William Penkethman and Joseph Haines often insured a play's success by their antics on the stage. In addition to the major figures of the period, a substantial number of competent minor actors and actresses mastered the character roles which appear with frequency in much Restoration drama. The Restoration players exerted an influence on both the direction and content of the drama of the period. A better understanding of their performances and personalities could well lead to a better understanding of the drama itself. I have followed the alphabetical listing of the actors and actresses given in Part I of The London Stage, making a few additions where I found them necessary. For the most part, each entry contains information on the player's first and last recorded performances and on his best roles. Whenever possible I have included commentary about his ability. In addition, I have tried to provide data about the character and personality of each player when possible. In some instances I felt that the physical appearance was important and included that information. Much of the information in each entry comes from Restoration and eighteenth century sources. John Downes's Roscius Anglicanus and Thomas Davies' Dramatic Miscellanies were especially valuable, as was John Genest's Some Account of the English Stage. In the twentieth century, the works of John Harold Wilson and Sybil Rosenfeld were very helpful. Finally, the massive scholarship of The London Stage pervades this dissertation. Without that work my task would have been impossible.

Verba Vana, or ‘empty words’, are named as among the defining features of London by a late fourteenth-century Anglo-Latin poem which itemises the properties of seven English cities. This thesis examines the implications of this description; it explores, in essence, what it meant to live, work, and especially write, in an urban space notorious for the vacuity of its words. The thesis demonstrates that anxieties concerning the notoriety of empty words can be detected in a wide variety of surviving urban writings produced in the 1380s and 1390s. These include anxieties not only about idle talk – such as janglynge, slander, and other sins of the tongue – but also about the deficiencies of official discourses which are partisan, fragmentary and susceptible to contradiction and revision. This thesis explores these anxieties over the course of four discrete chapters. Chapter one, focusing on Letter-Book H, Richard Maidstone’s Concordia and Geoffrey Chaucer’s Cook’s Tale, considers how writers engaged with the urban power struggles that were played out on Cheapside. Chapter two, examining the 1388 Guild Petitions, considers how the London guilds legitimised their textual endeavours and argues that the famous Mercers’ Petition is a translation of the hitherto-ignored Embroiderers’ Petition. Chapter three, looking at several works by Chaucer, John Gower, the Monk of Westminster and various urban officials, explores the discursive space that emerges following justified and unjustified executions. Chapter four, focusing on Chaucer’s Squire’s Tale and John Clanvowe’s Boke of Cupide, contends that the crises of speech and authority that these poems dramatise can be productively read within the context of the Merciless Parliament of 1388. Through close textual analysis, this thesis analyses specific responses to the prevalence of empty words in the city, while also reflecting more broadly on the remarkable cultural, linguistic, social, and political developments witnessed in this period.

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