Vince has provided a useful and, for the most part, usable reference work. His introduction should be required reading for anyone approaching medieval theater. "Choice"

Scholars increasingly see medieval theatre as a complex and vital performance medium related more closely to political, religious, and social life than to literature as we know it. Reflecting the current interest in performance, "A Companion to the Medieval Theatre" presents 250 alphabetically arranged entries offering a panoramic view of European and British theatrical productions between the years 900 and 1550. The volume features 30 essays contributed by an international group of specialists and includes many shorter entries as well as systematic cross-referencing, a chronology, a bibliography, and a full complement of indexes.

Major entries focus on the theatres of the principal linguistic areas (the British Isles, France, Germany, Iberia, Italy, Scandinavia, the Low Countries, and Eastern Europe), and on dramatic forms and genres such as liturgical drama, Passion and saint plays, morality plays, folk drama, and Humanist drama. Other articles examine costume, acting, pageantry, and music, and explore the theatrical dimension of courtly entertainment, the dance, and the tournament. Short entries supply information on over one hundred playwrights, directors, actors and antiquarians whose contributions to the theatre have been documented. This informative guide brings new depth to our appreciation of the richness and color of medieval public entertainments and the symbolism and pageantry that were a part of daily life in the Middle Ages. Designed to appeal to general reader, this volume is also an attractive choice for libraries serving students and scholars of theatre history, English and European literatures, medieval history, cultural history, drama, and performance.

Like Vince's two previous volumes in this series, "Ancient and Medieval Theatre" (1984), and "Renaissance Theatre," "Neoclassical Theatre" provides a valuable resource for theoreticians and practioners. "Choice"

This book provides an introduction to the information sources available to the neoclassical theatre historian and to some of the methods that have been used in the interpretation of those sources. Differences in the cultural context of the theatres in England, France, and Italy as well as in the historiography governing their interpretations are explored in depth. Unlike other books devoted to the history of eighteenth-century theatre, this work examines the materials and the processes of theatre history itself and is international in scope. Among the elements discussed are dramatic texts and promptbooks, public and legal records, playbills and account books, stage plans and scene designs, contemporary history and dramatic theory, biography and memoirs, and stage iconography and theatrical portraiture. The book also provides an evaluative sketch of some valuable reference works and, where possible, the reader is directed to a source where the original evidence is reproduced. The author concludes by examining some of the evidence for and implications of the internationalization of eighteenth-century theatre with suggestions for future study regarding the international geocultural dimension of the discipline.

Vince introduces readers to the sources of information available to the theatre historian, and to some of the methods that have been used in the interpretation of that evidence. He provides an analytical survey of the principal written and artifactual evidence for the history of the Renaissance theatres of Italy, Spain, England, and France. The book includes a discussion of the various types of evidence available to the theatre historian, with special reference to those sources that have proved to be of central importance, and an evaluative sketch of some of the most significant scholarship. Wherever possible, the reader is directed to original documents and sources that reproduce primary evidence. Each chapter concludes with a reference bibliography.

"Vince uses written and artifactual evidence of theatre history to explain the nature of its current state. His study of theatre's early forms discloses a wealth of significant facts, and some conjectures, that stimulate understanding and appreciation of the art." Backstage