Chanita Goodblatt is Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Ben-Gurion University of the NegevEva von Contzen is Junior Professor of English Literature at the University of Freiburg, Germany

'There is much here to stimulate, and encourage new attention to the variety and complexity of biblical plays.'Cathy Hume, Journal of British Studies

• Introduction – Chanita Goodblatt and Eva von ContzenPart I: Medieval drama1 Lay piety and impiety: the role of Noah’s wife in the Chester play of Noah’s Flood – Lawrence Besserman2 Typology, community, and stagecraft in the N-town ‘Trial of Mary and Joseph’ – Jonathan Stavsky3 Embodiment and joint attention: an enactive reading of the Middle English cycle plays– Eva von ContzenPart II: From medieval to early modern drama4 From medieval to early modern choric threnody in biblical plays – Silvia Bigliazzi5 The itinerant healer as a stage role: its origins in religious drama – M. A. Katritzky6 Citing scripture in later medieval and early modern English morality drama – Cathy Shrank7 Religious violence and dramatic innovation in the Tudor interlude: John Heywood’s The Pardoner and the Friar – Greg Walker8 Elizabethan biblical drama – Paul Whitfield WhitePart III: Early modern drama9 Protestant place, Protestant props in the plays of Nicholas Grimald– Elisabeth Dutton10 Staging prophecy: A Looking Glass for London and the Book of Jonah– Hannibal Hamlin11 Early modern dramatic martyrdom– Monika Fludernik12 ‘Samson Figuru nese’: biblical plays between Czech drama and English comedy in early modern Central Europe– Pavel Drábek 13 To play the Fool: the Book of Esther in early modern biblical drama– Chanita GoodblattIndex