"This work combines a study of pre-Shakespearean theatre with an edition of the known works of Richard Edwards, a poet beloved by his contemporaries and regarded as the most influential dramatist before Shakespeare. The book includes fully annotated critical editions of Edward's play, "Damon and Pythias", poems and songs (some newly ascribed), and a detailed account of the staging of his spectacular lost play, "Palamon and Arcyte", performed before Queen Elizabeth I at Oxford, with eye-witness accounts of her reactions. It illustrates a new approach to the modernization of dramatic poetry and contains a re-evaluation of the role of theatre and poetry during a particularly turbulent and dangerous period in English history."--BOOK JACKET.