Shakespeare's Speech Headings

The concentration of this book is on the speech prefixes in printed and manuscript plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries with particular emphasis on All's Well, Coriolanus, Henry VI, and Romeo and Juliet.

The contributors examine the evidence provided by these designators as it applies to the nature of the text, the performance, the acting companies, and the audience.

Though many scholars have discussed the significance of speech headings, this is the first volume directed exclusively to this phenomenon, unique to the drama.