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  • Ballad Business: Selling Early Modern Theatre

    Ballad Business by Stern, Tiffany;

    Selling Early Modern Theatre

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      • Publisher's listprice GBP 110.00
      • The price is estimated because at the time of ordering we do not know what conversion rates will apply to HUF / product currency when the book arrives. In case HUF is weaker, the price increases slightly, in case HUF is stronger, the price goes lower slightly.

        49 665 Ft (47 300 Ft + 5% VAT)
      • Discount 10% (cc. 4 967 Ft off)
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    49 665 Ft

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    Availability

    Estimated delivery time: In stock at the publisher, but not at Prospero's office. Delivery time approx. 3-5 weeks.
    Not in stock at Prospero.

    Why don't you give exact delivery time?

    Delivery time is estimated on our previous experiences. We give estimations only, because we order from outside Hungary, and the delivery time mainly depends on how quickly the publisher supplies the book. Faster or slower deliveries both happen, but we do our best to supply as quickly as possible.

    Product details:

    • Publisher Cambridge University Press
    • Date of Publication 19 February 2026

    • ISBN 9781107179677
    • Binding Hardback
    • No. of pages368 pages
    • Size 229x152x21 mm
    • Weight 705 g
    • Language English
    • 774

    Categories

    Short description:

    An enlightening study into broadsheet ballad merchandise sold outside playhouses for plays by Shakespeare, Jonson, Marlowe, Kyd and more.

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    Long description:

    Playwrights, including Shakespeare, often started out as song writers and regularly product-placed ballads within their dramas. In this enlightening study, Tiffany Stern asks who wrote, financed, published and marketed theatrical broadsheet ballads and investigates the migrants, women, and individuals with disabilities who sung and sold them outside playhouses - in striking contrast to the white, able-bodied and male actors who performed inside. With case-studies ranging from ballads in plays by Shakespeare and Jonson, sung after plays as jigs or 'themes' by the clowns Tarlton, Kemp and Armin, and performed about the plays of Marlowe, Kyd, Shakespeare and others, Ballad Business argues that broadsheet ballads were often the first and sometimes only parts of the performance to be published. Advertisements and souvenirs, ballads constituted a crucial though now forgotten form of theatrical merchandise and musical paratext.

    'For anyone who thinks that merchandising and fanfictions are a recent development, Tiffany Stern's remarkable book will show that they were part of the business of theatre and the business of ballad-mongering in Shakespeare's London. Stern brilliantly explores how the two trades - making theatre and selling ballads - collaborated as she explores ballads before, during and after play performances. She transforms our sense of the playhouse culture of Early Modern London and our view of playgoing will never be the same again.' Peter Holland, McMeel Family Professor in Shakespeare Studies, University of NotreDame

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    Table of Contents:

    Introduction; 1. Balladmongers; 2. Publishing and writing ballads; 3. In-play ballads and more: Shakespeare; 4. In-play ballads: Ben Jonson; 5. After-play ballads: Jigs and more; 6. About-play ballads: Marlowe and others; 7. About-play ballads: Shakespeare; Conclusion; Bibliography; Index.

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