This substantial volume is an addition to Ashgate's Studies in Performance and Early Modern Drama series. It comprises a solid and informative Introduction by the editors, no less than fourteen chapters, and an impressive Afterword by Jean E. Howard. There may well be a pun, intended or otherwise, in the title's use of the words ‘working subjects’, as the book does indeed cover an unusually wide variety of ‘subjects’, not only describing working people (subjects of the monarch) but also the cultural, social and political contexts in which work – or, more often used in this volume, ‘labor’ – was carried out (subjects with which the various plays discussed by the authors are said to engage).

One of the main aims of the volume is ‘to investigate . . . the processes by which the drama [of the period] began to forge connections between labor and subjectivity’ (p. 3). In this it succeeds admirably, involving the reader in discussion after discussion of the ‘way in which work was defined . . . as constitutive of subjectivity’ (p. 4). The first two essays in the volume, both using The Shoemaker's Holiday as their inspiration, tackle ‘historical struggle as manifested in literary form’ (pp. 17–18) and ‘how different types of London citizen had assumed differing relationships to labor’ (p. 37).

A number of the essays give more than a nod to Marxist theory and the general tenor is that of consumption rather than production. A bewildering range of activities is labelled ‘work’ and can lead the reader to conclude that in some way all activity in the early modern period is being defined here as work (including witchcraft, alchemy, dancing and confidence trickery as exemplified in The Alchemist). Such wide claims, though often backed with lively and provocative ideas and insights into the political and cultural backgrounds of the time, seem occasionally shoehorned into serving each contributor's overall argument, and this results in a slight discontent with a volume that, at its best, breaks into new cultural and literary territory.

One of the more persuasive chapters – by Sara Mueller – gives a vivid account of domestic servants ‘performing’ their work as part of the entertainment at Bisham, during Queen Elizabeth's visit there in 1592, while Valerie Forman's close examination of The Island Princess is one of the better attempts at describing England's increasing involvement in overseas trade and ‘the contradictions, occlusions, and new forms of exploitation occasioned by it’ (p. 245). More close readings, such as Forman’s, would have been welcome in a volume, some chapters of which only pay cursory attention to the texts they introduce.

With a few notable exceptions, such as The Shoemaker's Holiday, many of the plays selected to exemplify and underpin the broad theoretical arguments adduced by the contributors to the volume seem, to this reader, unable to bear the weight of the significance claimed for them in relation to the overall theme of work in the period. Even with that cavil, among the others already mentioned, one can only admire the ambitious nature of this book and its general success in carrying out its intention.