"The Elizabethan dramatist often pointed openly to the gulf between make-believe and actuality. The later view that accepted the play as the real thing and the audience as invisible was not his. Partly from the way he viewed his art, partly, no doubt, to avoid trouble with authorities, he sometimes deliberately reminded his audiences of its own reality and of the pretense and illusion of dramatic art.".

"The Induction in Elizabethan Drama studies with some sympathy the Elizabethan dramatist's use of a device that often takes particular cognizance of the audience and that, in a modern sense, may violate dramatic illusion. For convenience, Dr. Greenfield has used the Elizabethan term induction to cover the separate dramatic materials sometimes employed to launch the play proper.".

"These curious playlets in which the author dramatized some statement about the play varied widely. Dr. Greenfield studies the dumb show, pantomine, spoken dialogue and frame plays, with the variations of each and its manner of production on the stage. Her work includes classification and critical analysis of the form, a bibliography of the relevant plays of the period, and comment on modern criticism of the induction."--BOOK JACKET.