Dramatic paratexts – the extra-dramatic printed materials found primarily in playbooks’ preliminary and closing pages, and which include title pages, commendatory poems, dedications, cast lists, and more – represent a rich, and yet largely unexamined, source of information about all aspects of the production, reception and transmission of dramatic literature in the early modern period.
When complete, Early Modern Dramatic Paratexts will offer complete and fully-searchable transcriptions of all paratexts included in playbooks printed to the year 1660 along with metadata from paratexts’ associated playbooks. EMDP allows users to search both paratexts and playbooks by keyword, play title, playbook author, paratext type, publication date, stationer, and STC/WING, DEEP and Wiggins numbers. EMDP’s paratextual entries link to entries from the Database of Early English Plays (DEEP), created by Alan Farmer and Zachary Lesser, whose collaboration we gratefully acknowledge.
Early Modern Dramatic Paratexts represents a digitized and expanded version of Paratexts in English Printed Drama to 1642, edited by Thomas L. Berger and Sonia Massai and published by Cambridge University Press in 2014. EMDP Phase 1 (in progress) digitizes the two-volumes of the printed Paratexts in English Printed Drama to 1642. Phase 2 (in progress) expands the contents of EMDP to include all English dramatic paratexts printed between 1642 and 1660, based on work by Heidi Craig.
EMDP’s other major bibliographic sources include W.W. Greg, A Bibliography of the English Printed Drama to the Restoration, 4 vols. (London: Bibliographical Society, 1939-59), Alan B. Farmer and Zachary Lesser, Database of Early English Plays and Martin Wiggins and Catherine Richardson, British Drama 1533-1642, 9 vols (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012-19).
Early Modern Dramatic Paratexts (EMDP) is currently in beta mode, capitalizing on digital affordances to publish paratextual transcriptions and associated meta-data on a rolling basis. As part an in-progress database, EMDP’s extensive entries are in various stages of completion; our hope is that users will explore the dataset and site functionality and offer feedback. Please report errors, omissions and suggestions to hcraig [at] tamu.edu.
Editors: Sonia Massai and Heidi Craig
Research Assistants: Michaela Baca, Lindsey Jones, Alexandra LaGrand, Cailey McCabe, Elizabeth Perry, and Kristen York
Folger development team: Meaghan Brown, Sophie Byvik, Rebecca Niles, and Michael Poston
Early Modern Dramatic Paratexts gratefully acknowledges the support of the Center of Digital Humanities Research at Texas A&M University, Texas A&M’s Department of English, and Texas A&M’s College of Arts & Sciences.
