Shakespeare’s Theater of Judgment

Among the innovations of the Elizabethan theaters – the first such purpose-built structures in England since the time of the ancient Roman occupation – was the introduction of the box office. Performers would no longer pass the hat at the end of a performance in the hope of a generous reward. Theatergoers would now pay in advance for their entertainment, whether they judged it to their liking or not. Then, as now, at a play’s end they demonstrated their judgment in the form of applause or noises of disapproval. In this innovative study, Kevin Curran has identified and explored a concept that shaped the experience of playwrights and audiences alike. He shows the extent to which judgment – critical, punitive, just, forgiving, loving – was central to Shakespeare’s imagination and his practice. -- Stephen Greenblatt, Harvard University
In this lucid, concise and yet wide-ranging book, Kevin Curran recovers the multifariousness of judgment as vital to Shakespearean theatre. Challenging the modern association of judgment with boundary-policing and normativity, Curran shows how evaluative skills honed by early modern literary culture migrated into a theatrical practice that continues to demand creative and collective participation in the imagining of human relations, present and future. -- Lorna Hutson, University of Oxford