Dr Eleanor Lowe

Programme Lead for English Literature, Theatre and Creative Writing

School of Education, Humanities and Languages

eleanor.lowe@brookes.ac.uk

Role

I studied at the University of Durham before taking an MA in Shakespeare Studies and PhD at The Shakespeare Institute (University of Birmingham) in Stratford-upon-Avon. Prior to working at Oxford Brookes I was post-doctoral research fellow for the Richard Brome Online project based in the Department of Drama, Theatre and Dance at Royal Holloway, University of London.

My research interests are divided between two main strands: editing and material culture. I worked on the Royal Shakespeare Company Complete Works of William Shakespeare (2008) and have published editions of George Chapman's An Humorous Day's Mirth (online with Digital Renaissance Editions, 2013), Richard Brome's A Mad Couple Well Matched and The Love-Sick Court (online, as part of Richard Brome Online, 2013), John Ford's The Fair Maid of the Inn (with Martin Wiggins; OUP, 2017), as well as 'Accounts and Inventories of the Revels Office, 1541-1546' (The Malone Society, 2016).

My interest in material culture largely focuses on clothing, linen and cleanliness. I have written on this topic with reference to humours comedy (especially An Humorous Day's Mirth), and in relation to plays by Shakespeare, Jonson and Middleton. I have also written about bookbinding and marriage in Brome's The Love-Sick Court and discussed Viscount Montague's 'Household Book', in particular the role of the steward in household management and its relevance to Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. I am currently working on a monograph on Cleanliness and Early Modern Drama as well as writing about Fletcher and genre.

Teaching and supervision

Courses

English Literature (BA (Hons))

Modules taught

Undergraduate

Renaissance Tragedy & Comedy
Work Placement in Drama
Texts in Performance
Final Production
People, Plays and Places
Modern British Theatre in Performance
Shakespeare

Postgraduate

Shakespeare's Collaborators

Supervision

PhD and MA supervision in early modern literature and culture

Research

Eleanor's main research interests are in Early Modern drama, theatre practice, publishing culture, and editorial practices. Her research focuses on the cultural, social and political contexts of Renaissance dramatic texts and their performances, both historical and contemporary.

Research Interests

Early Modern drama
Jonson, Chapman, Middleton and Brome
Material culture
Stage properties
Textual studies
Cleanliness
Clothing

Further information

Richard Brome Online (2010): www.hrionline.ac.uk/brome

Groups

Materialities

Publications

Lowe E, '"Bound up and clasped together": bookbinding as metaphor for marriage in Richard Brome's The Love-Sick Court'
Early Theatre 16 (1) (2013) pp.75-95

ISSN: 1206-9078
Abstract Published here
Lowe E, 'Confirmation of Richard Brome's final years in Charterhouse Hospital'
Notes & Queries 54 (4) (2007) pp.416-418

ISSN: 0029-3970
Published here
Lowe, E, 'Offstage and Onstage Drama: New Approaches to Richard Brome'
Early Theatre 10 (2) (2007) pp.109-116

ISSN: 1206-9078
Published here

Vickers B, Cain T, Hopkins L, Lowe E, Katsuhiko N, Wiggins M, (ed.), The Collected Works of John Ford: Volume IV, Oxford University Press (2023)

ISBN: 9780192865618
Abstract
- Authoritative old-spelling texts, edited from the original Quartos with full textual collations
- Insightful introductions emphasize both Ford's linguistic creativity and his effective use of the indoor private theatres
- Provides a full commentary on all aspects of the text: archaic or obsolete words, classical allusions, and historical references to people, places, and social customs
Published here

Lowe E, 'Plays, 1598-1603' in Giddens E (ed.), The Oxford Handbook to Ben Jonson, Oxford University Press (2018)

ISBN: 9780199544561 eISBN: 9780191750038
Abstract Published here Open Access on RADAR
Lowe E, 'Duty and Authority: Malvolio, Stewardship and Montague’s Household Book' in Halsey K, Vine A (ed.), Shakespeare and authority : Citations, conceptions and constructions, Palgrave Macmillan (2018)

ISBN: 9781137578525 eISBN: 9781137578532
Abstract Published here
Lowe E, Korda N, 'In praise of clean linen: Laundering humours on the early modern English stage' in Richardson C, Hamling T, Gaimster D (ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Material Culture in Early Modern Europe, Routledge (2017)

ISBN: 9781409462699 eISBN: 9781315613161
Abstract Published here
Lowe E, Cave RA, Woolland B, 'Actors and Editors: A Feature of the Edition, Richard Brome Online' in Jacqueline Jenkins, Julie Sanders (ed.), Editing, Performance, Texts: New Practices in Medieval and Early Modern English Drama, Palgrave Macmillan (2014)

ISBN: 9781137320100 eISBN: 9781137320117
Published here
Lowe E, ''My cloak's a stranger; he was made but yesterday': Clothing, Language, and the Construction of Theatre in Middleton' in Taylor G, Henley TT (ed.), Oxford Handbook of Thomas Middleton, Oxford University Press (2012)

ISBN: 9780199559886
Lowe E, 'Clothing and identity' in Ben Jonson in context, Cambridge University Press (2010)

ISBN: 9780521895712

Lowe E, review of Shakespeare in Elizabethan Costume: ‘Period Dress’ in Twenty-First-Century Performance, Ella Hawkins (2022)
Studies in Costume & Performance 8 (2) (2023) pp.308-311

ISSN: 2052-4013 eISSN: 2052-4021
Abstract Published here
Lowe E, review of Labors Lost: Women's Work and the Early Modern English Stage
The Review of English Studies 63 (2013) pp.847-848

ISSN: 0034-6551 eISSN: 1471-6968
Published here
Lowe E, review of Locating the Queens Men, 1583-1603: Material Practices and Conditions of Playing
Shakespeare 6 (2010) pp.116-118

ISSN: 1745-0918 eISSN: 1745-0926
Published here

Lowe E, Wiggins M (eds), 'John Ford's "The Fair Maid of the Inn" [scholarly edition]', (2017)
Published here
Lowe E, Wiggins M, Dillon J, 'Accounts and Inventories of the Revels Office, 1541-1546 [scholarly edition]', (2016)
Published here
Lowe E, 'George Chapman's "An Humorous Day's Mirth" [critical online edition]', (2013)
Abstract Published here
Lowe E, 'Critical edition of George Chapman's 'A Humorous Day's Mirth'', (2013)
Published here
Lowe E, 'Richard Brome's "A Mad Couple Well Matched" [scholarly edition]', (2010)
Abstract Published here
Lowe E, 'Richard Brome's "The Love-Sick Court" [scholarly edition]', (2010)
Abstract Published here
Lowe E, 'The Picture', (2010)

Professional information

Memberships of professional bodies

British Shakespeare Association
The Malone Society
Digital Renaissance Editions (General Textual Editor)

Conferences

Conference papers

'Linen, Cleanliness and Early Modern Drama', London Renaissance Seminar on Clothing the Renaissance, January 2018.
'"The flux of apparel": Humours and Clothing in Every Man Out of His Humour', Ben Jonson's Workes and their Contexts: 400 years on, University of Sheffield, November 2016.
'"Scouring faults": Everyday Cleanliness in 1 and 2 Henry IV', Everyday Shakespeare seminar, World Shakespeare Congress, Stratford-upon-Avon and London, August 2016.
'Page, Stage and Screen: Editing Early Modern Drama Online', Digital Humanities at Oxford Summer School, St. Anne's College, Oxford University, July 2015.
Panel member for 'Scholarly Digital Editing', Digital Humanities at Oxford Summer School, Wolfson College, Oxford University, July 2014.
'"Authority and obedience": Malvolio, Stewardship and the Cowdray Manuscript', British Shakespeare Association, Biennial Conference, University of Stirling, July 2014.
'"Cleane Linnen is my Mistris, and my Theame": Taylor, Brome and the Early Modern Laundry Basket', Early Modern Water Interdisciplinary Symposium, Landscape, Space, Place Research Group, University of Nottingham, May 2011.
'Making a clean sweep: Brome, Cleanliness, Clothing and the Renaissance Stage', Renaissance Women's Performance and the Dramatic Canon, International Conference, The Queen's House, Greenwich, July 2010.
‘Living History: The Experience of Authenticity’, Belfast, Filming and Performing Renaissance History 1500-1660 conference, April 2009.
‘“In to my bed, and out o’ the world presently”: Richard Brome’s Final Years’, Renaissance Endings, Centre for Research in Renaissance Studies, Roehampton University, London, October 2006.
Prepared an editorial project on A Humorous Day’s Mirth for Editing for Performance workshop led by M. J. Kidnie and Sarah Werner, Shakespeare Association of America conference, New Orleans, USA, April 2004.
‘Creative Clues: Textual and Performative Editorial Issues’, Constructing Knowledge Across the Humanities conference, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, USA, April 2003.
‘“Change for the Better”: Freezing and Falsifying Play Texts in the Hope of Enhancing Authorial Visual Art’, ‘Behold and See’: Meaning and Form in Shakespeare’s Visual Art, doctoral conference, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary, November 2002.
‘A Humorous Day’s Mirth: Or is it? Titular titillation in Chapman’s Comedy of Humours’, 4th International British Graduate Shakespeare Conference, The Shakespeare Institute, Stratford-upon-Avon, June 2002.
‘Editing: the “Instrument of Procreation” and Other Textual Problems’, postgraduate seminar, Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, March 2002.

Conference Organisation

Oxford Brookes Early Modern research cluster symposium, 'Early Modern Women', June 2010.
Organisation of twice-yearly editorial conferences for the Richard Brome Online project, Royal Holloway, University of London, 2005-2008.
Richard Brome and Caroline Theatre, International Symposium, Royal Holloway, University of London, co-organiser with Richard Cave, June 2007.
‘Richard Brome and Caroline Drama’, seminar co-organised with Lucy Munro (Keele University), Shakespeare Association of America conference, San Diego, USA, April 2007.
Committee co-ordinator, International British Graduate Shakespeare Conference, The Shakespeare Institute, Stratford-upon-Avon, 2001 & 2002.

Further details

I studied for my BA in English Literature at the University of Durham before taking an MA in Shakespeare Studies at The Shakespeare Institute (University of Birmingham) in Stratford-upon-Avon. I was awarded my PhD on George Chapman's An Humorous Day's Mirth in 2005, fully funded by the AHRB.