This is the first comprehensive study of Tudor drama that sees the long 16th century from the accession of Henry Tudor to the death of Elizabeth as a whole, taking in the numinous drama of the 'Mystery Plays' and the early work of Shakespeare. It is an invaluable account of current scholarship and an introduction to the complexity of Tudor drama.

Comprehensive coverage allows readers to understand the whole early history of drama in Britain Attends to the quasi-dramatic forms - royal entries, processions, ceremonial masques, that were so central to Tudor culture, but are often neglected in accounts of the drama The best established scholars in Europe and the US, coupled with rising stars in the field provide a single-volume guide to the best work in the field, its current state and future direction The book is written throughout with readers in mind, offering a clear sense of why this material matters, and how one might think about it afresh, freed from the old stereotypes

Thomas Betteridge is Professor of English Literature and Drama at Oxford Brookes University. His books include Tudor Histories of the English Reformations (1999), Literature and Politics in the English Reformation (2004) and Shakespearean Fantasy and Politics (2005). He is currently working on a study of Sir Thomas More's writing to be published by Notre Dame Press 2012. Professor Betteridge was project leader of the Arts and Humanities Research Council funded research project Staging the Henrician Court and the Wellcome Trust funded project Medicine, Birth and Death at the Tudor Court. Greg Walker is Regius Professor of Rhetoric and English Literature at the University of Edinburgh and Head of the School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures, having previously been the University's Masson Professor of English Literature. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, The English Association and the Society of Antiquaries. Greg's research is primarily focused on the literary and political history of the late medieval period and the sixteenth century, although he has also published on modern popular music and the films of Alexander Korda. He is interested in the history of the stage, and in the cultural consequences of the Henrician Reformation. His most recent books are Writing under Tyranny: English Literature and the Henrician Reformation (OUP, 2005) and The Oxford Handbook of Medieval Literature in English (OUP, 2010), co-edited with Elaine Treharne.

Comprehensive coverage allows readers to understand the whole early history of drama in Britain Attends to the quasi-dramatic forms - royal entries, processions, ceremonial masques, that were so central to Tudor culture, but are often neglected in accounts of the drama The best established scholars in Europe and the US, coupled with rising stars in the field provide a single-volume guide to the best work in the field, its current state and future direction The book is written throughout with readers in mind, offering a clear sense of why this material matters, and how one might think about it afresh, freed from the old stereotypes