“The best book on the early drama ever written in English.” — Modern Language Notes. This comprehensive, groundbreaking work — the first to examine the history of medieval theater from an English viewpoint — considers the many different conditions that existed in the institution by the sixteenth century, just prior to the establishment of the great Shakespearean stage. Thoroughly researched and meticulously documented, this monumental reference brims with a vast amount of material recording the history of theater in the Middle Ages — from the demise of ancient Roman theater in the fourth century A.D. to the appearance in the late 1500s of a new class of professional players, the likes of whom had not been seen since the days of the Roman conquest. Noted Shakespearean scholar and critic E. K. Chambers provides enormously learned yet highly readable accounts of early theater in which scenes from the Christian liturgy were played out, the appearance of the ludi — performances at village feasts and festivals; miracle and morality plays, puppet shows, dramatic pageants, mimes, mummers, and gaudily dressed minstrels; reenactments of St. George slaying the dragon and the adventures of “Robyn Hod”; the introduction of disguises and masks in the early 1500s, and much more. Originally published in two volumes — bound here as one — The Mediaeval Stage “is an important and valuable treatise … a work combining patient and profound learning, good common sense, and extraordinary amenity.” — Modern Language Notes. It will be an indispensable reference for historians, students of English theater, and anyone interested in medieval life.