Considering affect as mood, inclination, and manner, as well as emotion, and addressing affect as both an economic and cultural phenomenon, this collection of fourteen original essays showcases historical modes of affect within the formal productions of early modern English theater as well as its more informal entertainments and spectacles. It is therefore an important reference for students and scholars of theater studies, performance studies, early modern history, and literary theory.

Introduction Ronda Arab, Michelle M. Dowd, and Adam Zucker Part I: Struggling with the Stage 1. Going Through the Motions: Affects, Machines, and John Ford's The Broken Heart Patricia Cahill 2. Magnetic Theaters Benedict Robinson 3. Feeling Unhistorical Ellen MacKay 4. Literary Celebrity and Theatrical Culture in Shirley's Bird in a Cage Allison K. Deutermann Part II: Engendering... 5. Monstrous Teardrops: The Materiality of Early Modern Affection Ian Frederick Moulton 6. "Displeas'd ambitious TONGUE": Lingua and Lingual Duality Lianne Habinek 7. "Come, Eros, Eros!": Re-reading Emotion and Affect in Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra Jyostna Singh Part III: ...A Nation 8. Wondering in Henry VIII or All is True Tiffany Werth 9. Angelica and Franceschina: The Italianate Characters of Juliet's Nurse Bianca Finzi-Contini Calabresi 10. The Mirror and the Cage: Queens and Dwarfs at the Early Modern Court Pamela Allen Brown 11. Gold Digger or Golden Girl?: Purifying the Pursuit of Gold in Heywood's Fair Maid of the West, Part I Jane Hwang Degenhardt Part IV: Theater of a City 12. Civic Affect and Female Political Agency in Sir Thomas More Mario DiGangi 13. Corporate Life in Thomas Dekker's The Shoemaker's Holiday Henry S. Turner 14. Transforming the Younger Son: The Disruptive Affect of the Gentleman-Apprentice in Eastward Ho Ronda Arab 15. Managing Fear: The Commerce in Blackness and the London Lord Mayors' Shows Ian Smith Afterward Phyllis Rackin