Arden of Faversham. Ed. Catherine Richardson (Arden Early Modern Drama). London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2021.

Arden of Faversham is a great Elizabethan play, and it is doubly wonderful to have the tragedy not only included as part of the Arden Early Modern Drama series but also edited by so accomplished a scholar as Catherine Richardson. The introduction provides a detailed account of the play’s historical context, sources, and genre, offering fascinating insights into the “years leading up to” the historical Thomas Arden’s death in 1551 and situating the play in “a tradition” not only of chronicle materials but also “murder pamphlets and broadside ballads about murders that germinated in the late 1570s”. Richardson broadens our knowledge of the play in relation to “domestic concerns” and provides enlightening commentary on its “uneven linguistic register” and its “boldly exciting and experimental writing”. We learn that the play has been performed by “professional travelling companies” in and around Kent and that it was even a “popular marionette show”. A particular highlight of this edition is Richardson’s emphasis on staging the household and how “location apparently determines the scenic structure”, with scenic structure being intrinsically linked to the “play’s representation of community”.