Shakespeares Censor: Edmund Tilneys Intelligence Manual [Hardcover]

Introduction, Chapter 1. Authorship, Genre, Sources, Chapter 2. History, Chronologies, Regiments, Chapter 3. Legend and History, Chapter 4. Religion and Politics, Chapter 5. Licensing and Censorship: the Oldcastle/Falstaff Controversy and the book of Sir Thomas More, Chapter 6. PrProducing Shakespeare at Court, Conclusion, Index

This?book?situates?Tilneys?intelligence manual in the emerging genre that developed around intelligence gathering in the late sixteenth century and attempts to explain how he reconciled the tension between his admiration for the aims of humanist history with his political and religious beliefs.

Streitberger takes you into the mind which licensed most of Shakespeares plays and reveals a surprising place, deeply absorbed in European theology, history and diplomacy while engaged in supplying suitable entertainment for his monarch. We will never get closer to what sophisticated Elizabethans saw when they read a Shakespeare play.

- Richard Dutton, Ohio State University (Emeritus)

Streitberger offers the first in-depth analysis of Edmund Tilneys lifes work, Topographical Descriptions, a fascinating example of diplomatic literature that combined political information gathering with humanist historiography. Streitbergers meticulous research fills an important gap in our understanding, providing insight into the knowledge and sensibilities of this significant figure of Elizabethan theatre. ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ??

- Elizabeth R. Williamson, University of Exeter

This book is a significant addition to existing scholarship on censorship and state control of the Elizabethan stage. Streitberger strengthens the view that Edmund Tilney was no mere censorious bureaucrat, but an enabler of the drama; brings to light the contents of Tilney's intelligence manual,lÓ!