'In this exciting new book, Celia R. Daileader creates a bold and original thesis from her observation that the early modern theatre featured no actual female bodies … imaginatively invigorates our senses, quickens our intellect and transforms our knowledge.' Mark Thornton Burnett, Theatre Research International

• List of illustrations; Acknowledgments; 1. Entrances: sex, women, God; 2. Offstage sex and female desire; 3. Body beneath/body beyond; 4. (Off)Staging the sacred; 5. Obscene and unseen; 6. Ejaculations and conclusions: toward an erotic theoretics; Appendices; Notes; Index.

'In this exciting new book, Celia R. Daileader creates a bold and original thesis from her observation that the early modern theatre featured no actual female bodies … imaginatively invigorates our senses, quickens our intellect and transforms our knowledge.' Mark Thornton Burnett, Theatre Research International

• List of illustrations; Acknowledgments; 1. Entrances: sex, women, God; 2. Offstage sex and female desire; 3. Body beneath/body beyond; 4. (Off)Staging the sacred; 5. Obscene and unseen; 6. Ejaculations and conclusions: toward an erotic theoretics; Appendices; Notes; Index.

'In this exciting new book, Celia R. Daileader creates a bold and original thesis from her observation that the early modern theatre featured no actual female bodies … imaginatively invigorates our senses, quickens our intellect and transforms our knowledge.' Mark Thornton Burnett, Theatre Research International

• List of illustrations; Acknowledgments; 1. Entrances: sex, women, God; 2. Offstage sex and female desire; 3. Body beneath/body beyond; 4. (Off)Staging the sacred; 5. Obscene and unseen; 6. Ejaculations and conclusions: toward an erotic theoretics; Appendices; Notes; Index.