Kingdom for a Stage: Magicians & Aristocrats in the Elizabethan Theatre - Review

Contemporary Review, Sept, 2001

Kingdom for a Stage: Magicians & Aristocrats in the Elizabethan Theatre. Joy Hancox. Sutton Publishing. [pound]20.00 (US$29.95). 270 pages. ISBN 0-75092239-7. This study carries on the work begun in the writer's earlier book, The Byrom Collection (1992). She argues that the evidence she has discovered from Byrom's geometrical drawings shows that the design of the Elizabethan theatre was revolutionary and that the role of aristocratic patrons had not been fully understood.

The theatre, she argues, ranked only after Elizabeth's church as a 'major cultural influence in England'. How these new buildings ('theatres') were constructed, by whom and for what purpose -- these are the questions the author seeks to answer. Key players included the Elizabethan scholar and magician, John Dee, as well as Francis Bacon. In her search for the meaning of the material she investigated the author comes up with some startling, not to say idiosyncratic conclusions, namely that Elizabeth I married the Earl of Leicester and gave bi rth to a child. So much for the Virgin Queen. She admits her studies have become 'something of a personal odyssey' and one can only wonder how many fellow travellers she will gather on her way.