In this important work, Mulready explores intersections of theatre, geography and imperialism, suggesting that the stage romance catered to a growing early modern desire for a more global world view. As such, he seeks to position the genre as a ‘powerful theatrical mode’ (p. 19) within an enduring literary tradition. Chapter 1 debunks the critical myth of the Shakespearean romance engaged by Edward Dowden, resituating the term within long-standing narrative and literary traditions, history and geography. Chapter 2 draws from Sidney's consideration of dramatic unities in The Defense of Poesy to chart the shift from prose to stage romance, reading Thomas Heywood's The Foure Prentices of London and Thomas Dekker's Old Fortunatus as evidence of dramatists’ refutations of Sidney's argument by calling upon audiences’ imagination to circumvent spatiotemporal constraints. Treating Tom a Lincoln and The Merchant of Venice, the next chapter outlines a process that Mulready labels ‘romance geography’ (p. 79), in which depictions of exotic locales and maritime voyages produce stories whose entertaining, educational, and commercial implications map a rapidly expanding world. In chapter 4, Mulready persuasively reads Henry V, positing that romance and history can be understood as dovetailing early modern genres: stage romance allows for a necessary performance of the past, confronting future imperialist expansion. Showing the play to be both ‘narrating and enacting … stories’ (p. 130), Mulready demonstrates the difficulty of categorizing genres in early modern drama, as well as the elasticity of terms such as ‘history’.
The next chapter argues that Pericles and The Tempest represent ‘disparate trajectories’ (p. 145) through which the stage romance depicts time and space, where each play offers complementary yet distinct responses to ongoing expansionist efforts. The final chapter examines the geopolitical connotations that Mulready outlines in the rest of the study through the generic lens of the court masque, analysing Milton's Comus. A coda, called a ‘globalized postscript to the long tradition of romance’ (p. 199), concludes the study by briefly making the case for the perpetuation of romance motifs beyond the Renaissance.
Mulready's monograph represents a careful and engaging study of stage romance. The final two chapters feel rushed at times. Moreover, there is a considerable reliance on Shakespearean drama, less on other authors’ work. The desire to open up the field beyond Shakespeare is a welcome one, but Mulready would be wise to bring in extra-Shakespearean works with more frequency. However, these remain minor flaws within a thoughtful study of romance and travel. On the whole, the book offers an enlightening portrait of the inherent geography of romance, which provides a fascinating consideration of the ways in which such elements converged on the Renaissance stage.
