The playwrights composing for the London stage between 1580 and 1642 repeatedly staged plays-within and other metatheatrical inserts. Such works present fictionalized spectators as well as performers, providing images of the audience-stage interaction within the theatre. They are as much enactments of the interpretive work of a spectator as of acting, and as such they are a potential source of information about early modern conceptions of audiences, spectatorship and perception. This study examines on-stage spectatorship in three plays by Philip Massinger, head playwright for the King's Men from 1625 to 1640. Each play presents a different form of metatheatrical inset, from the plays-within of The Roman Actor (1626), to the masques-within of The City Madam (1632) to the titular miniature portrait of The Picture (1629), moving thematically from spectator interpretations of dramatic performance, the visual spectacle of the masque to staged 'readings' of static visual art. All three forms present a dramatization of the process of examination, and allow an analysis of Massinger's assumptions about interpretation, perception and spectator response.

This thesis examines the use of metatheatrical inset pieces in the work of Philip Massinger, the dominant professional playwright of the London stage in the reign of Charles the First (1625-1642). Although all Renaissance drama contains metatheatrical insets, the Caroline period is particularly rich in these devices. I examine Massinger's use of such insets to posit some reasons for the development of a peculiarly Caroline metadrama and to examine their dramaturgical function in his plays. Massinger's presentation of inset pieces focuses on their function as spectatorial objects--pieces of art which are interpreted by spectators--which permits him to theatrically examine the process of spectatorship, and thus, to analyse the process of theatre itself. The introduction maps out the Caroline theatrical landscape, surveying some of the potential causes for the development of self-reflexive drama in the period, and placing Massinger within this context; the thesis itself focusses on Massinger's use of four forms of inset art. The first chapter examines Massinger's staging of pieces of visual art--paintings and statues--as metadramatic insets, objects which are read by spectators on the stage. The focus of the chapter is the dramaturgical use of the miniature of 'The Picture' (1629); Massinger structures the plot of his play around Mathias's reactions to his 'readings' of this image. The second and third chapters examine Massinger's two types of inset masques; Chapter Two focusses on masques which are staged for a single on-stage audience, and which simply function as dramatic images. Chapter Three examines the masques of 'The City Madam' (1632) and 'A Very Woman' (1634), both of which are ostensibly staged for a single audience member, who is then watched by a second on-stage audience who judge his reactions to the show he sees. Both masques function, like the miniature of ' The Picture', to allow access to the interior of their spectators. The final chapter examines the plays-within of 'The Roman Actor' (1626), Massinger's metatheatrical analysis and defence of his stage.

Medieval and Renaissance Drama in England is an international journal committed to the publication of essays and reviews relevant to drama and theatre history to 1642. This issue includes eleven new articles and reviews of twelve books.