The tradition of direct address has little to do with the frequently touted notion of the "fluidity of the Renaissance stage": the point is not that stage characters can talk to the audience but that they actually do reach out to the playgoers and in so doing import aspects of the audience world to the stage. These exchanges appear frequently in late-medieval drama and continue to be crucial stage strategies for Shakespeare, in whose work they grow and change. By examining a native dramatic tradition not fully explored before, Hill proposes new ways to imagine historical and contemporary...

Miss Wilhelmina Moon is a dog governess. At her first placement, on a small island off the coast of France, her new charges - sixty-seven dogs of all shapes, sizes and colors - run wild. But armed with patience and a passion for teaching, as well as her companions, Mitford the monkey and Petunia the French bulldog, Miss Moon soon imparts twenty important lessons to her furry brood. Some are practical, some are playful, one or two are a little unusual, but all are necessary for the raising of happy, healthy and well-mannered dogs (and humans).