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11 British Renaissance Plays Translated into Modern English for the First Time: Re-Attribution

Modernization of the Inaccessible British Renaissance opens texts to the public that have remained hidden in the archives because they have not been given the scholarly care lavished on the narrow standard canon of taught Authors. The absence of translations of these texts might have had a detrimental impact on world history because they explore the Islamic faith, homosexuality, promiscuity, and a myriad of other subjects with respectful warmth and acceptance that could have stopped wars of prejudice and unjust prosecutions across the past four centuries. These translations are executed with a unique method designed for this series that inserts a modern term into the body of the text to maximize reading-ease, and includes the original-spelling word or phrase, the source of the definition, and comments on alternative meanings in an annotation. Extensive annotations explain the meaning of proverbs, mythological and theological allusions, invented-words’ origins, and various other elements. As part of the British Renaissance Re-Attribution and Modernization Series, each text is accompanied with explanations regarding its computational-attribution and with additional evidence that strengthen these quantitative findings. One type of attributing evidence mentioned across the annotations is when borrowings of segments of text or plot and characters repeat across two or more texts in a single signature-group, such as those ghostwritten by William Percy. The translated texts are illustrated with enhanced versions of original artwork from their first editions. Most of these plays originally did not include Act or Scene divisions; these are added to orient readers in the text and to assist directors. A set of introductory elements that appeared in only some of these plays were added into all of them, including: “The Names of Persons” with character-summaries, “The Properties” that describe the set furnishings and design, and throughout the plays missing staging directions were added that help to clarify characters’ interactions. Primary source materials accompany texts where they are needed to explain the originating historical or fictional plotline or the pre-translation language they are imitating. The introductory sections present documentary evidence and biographical materials about the ghostwriters. Each text is introduced with a history of its previous publications and performances. An overview of textual, attribution or other types of scholarly research about each text helps to orient researchers who want to explore further. Extensive plot synopses are provided, with explanations of the themes, tropes, and other noteworthy patterns. And sections on staging propose potential approaches these plays can be practically staged by modern troupes or cinematically presented on film. Staging diagrams of the furnishings, props and architecture are designed for each play to help theater directors pick a play most suitable for the resources of their theatrical space. And to assist busy teachers and professors with enlivening and kickstarting a class, each text is accompanied with sections of key terms, references for further reading, questions for further discussion (themes, story structure, close reading), and creative and scholarly writing, and dramatic performance exercises. Full description of the 11 plays available at: https://anaphoraliterary.com/attribution. Each theatrical play can be re-written into the screenplay format upon request.