This collection explores the evidence for a wide variety of performance traditions up to 1642 in the northeast region of England which was among those most remote from London. While noble and religious houses in the northeast often patronized visiting performers and might be aware of developments in the capital, the region also had lively performance traditions of its own, on every level of society, from the wedding revels, sporting activities, and household fools of major noble families, through civic plays and processions, to the customary annual performances of hunters and ploughmen. The book considers the political, economic, religious, and psychological impulses that affected these traditions, and its closing chapter addresses their possible relevance to the culture of the region today.

Diana Wyatt is Associate Researcher, Records of Early English Drama North-East; Honorary Research Fellow, Durham University; and editor of Records of Early English Drama: East Riding of Yorkshire
John McKinnell is Emeritus Professor of English Studies at Durham University, Principal Investigator of the project "Records of Early English Drama North-East" and co-editor of Records of Early English Drama: County Durham

Introduction, John McKinnell and Diana Wyatt
Comic Performance in the Tudor and Stuart Percy Households, Bob Alexander
Wedding Revels at the Earl of Northumberland’s Household, Suzanne Westfall
Weddings and Wives in some West Riding Performance Records, Sylvia Thomas
Travelling Players on the North Yorkshire Moors, David Klausner
Travelling Players in the East Riding of Yorkshire, Diana Wyatt
Northern Catholics, Equestrian Sports, and the Gunpowder Plot, Gašper Jakovac
Wool, Cloth, and Economic Movement: Journeying with the York and Towneley Shepherds, Jamie Beckett
Visiting Players in the Durham Records: An Exotic Monster, a French Magician, and Scottish Ministralli, Mark Chambers
Rural and Urban Folk Ceremonies in County Durham, John McKinnell
Rush-bearings of Yorkshire West Riding, C. E. McGee
Boy Bishops in Medieval Durham, John McKinnell and Mark Chambers
Regional Performance as Intangible Cultural Heritage, Barbara Ravelhofer
Bibliography
Index