The Player’s Game

Abstract

In medieval England, games and plays were cognate activities. By Shakespeare’s time, “games” seem to have become a category distinct from drama, but the persistence of the term “player” suggests that theatrical performance was still considered a form of ludic activity. This essay historicizes the term “game”, thinking about the meanings of the word available to the early modern player and the ways in which those meanings are both similar to and different from those available to modern actors and directors. It then examines gamelike practice at the modern Shakespeare’s Globe, considering the extent to which the contemporary experiment allows us any kind of insight into the early modern dramaturgy of the “game.”