{"product_id":"common-stage","title":"Common Stage","description":"\u003cp\u003eMedieval Arras was a thriving town on the frontier between the kingdom of France and the county of Flanders, and home to Europe's earliest surviving vernacular plays: \u003ci\u003eThe Play of St. Nicholas\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Courtly Lad of Arras\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Boy and the Blind Man\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Play of the Bower\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eThe Play about Robin and about Marion\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eA Common Stage\u003c\/i\u003e, Carol Symes undertakes a cultural archeology of these artifacts, analyzing the processes by which a handful of entertainments were conceived, transmitted, received, and recorded during the thirteenth century. She then places the resulting scripts alongside other documented performances with which plays shared a common space and vocabulary: the crying of news, publication of law, preaching of sermons, telling of stories, celebration of liturgies, and arrangement of civic spectacles. She thereby shows how groups and individuals gained access to various means of publicity, participated in public life, and shaped public opinion. And she reveals that the theater of the Middle Ages was not merely a mirror of society but a social and political sphere, a vital site for the exchange of information and ideas, and a vibrant medium for debate, deliberation, and dispute.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe result is a book that closes the gap between the scattered textual remnants of medieval drama and the culture of performance from which that drama emerged. \u003ci\u003eA Common Stage\u003c\/i\u003e thus challenges the prevalent understanding of theater history while offering the first comprehensive history of a community often credited with the invention of French as a powerful literary language.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Cornell University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54222600470872,"sku":"9780801445811","price":70.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/1295\/4195\/files\/9780801445811_c427acab-9dcc-4778-9411-03001f0e3a69.jpg?v=1779507036","url":"https:\/\/agendabookshop.com\/products\/common-stage","provider":"Agenda Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}