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Civic theater (drama and pageantry sponsored by city and town governing bodies) is prominently featured in histories of early English provincial drama, but largely ignored in those of pre-Elizabethan London. Anne Lancashire explodes the widely-held notion that significant London theater arose jnly in Shakespeare's era, when the first commercial playhouses were built. She presents a rich panorama of civic theatrical life in London before 1558 that includes Roman amphitheater shows, medieval and Tudor mummings, street pjgeantry and plays.