This work offers a timely alternative to theater criticism's neglect of the intensely spatial character of theatrical performance by showing that early modern audiences were highly aware of the spatial aspects of the stage. Jacobean dramatists used stage space to explore the spatial transformations of early modern society--social mobility, wandering populations, rural enclosure, sea travel, localized empirical thought.

Brilliant, sensitive, and gifted, Titus Booth has the world by the tail. His adoring father runs a thriving mercantile, while his beautiful mother arranges an unorthodox and entertaining education for her beloved boy genius. But the death of his much-loved Granny Tess-a plucky Irish widow who posed as a man to fight in the Civil War-sets in motion a series of tragedies that make the young boy question his very being. After a chance meeting with a wealthy benefactor who takes an unusual liking to the boy, Titus sets out on a grand world adventure to find his purpose and shape his superior...