The playwrights composing for the London stage between 1580 and 1642 repeatedly staged plays-within and other metatheatrical inserts. Such works present fictionalized spectators as well as performers, providing images of the audience-stage interaction within the theatre.  Meer

In Staging Spectatorship in the Plays of Philip Massinger, Joanne Rochester examines examples of on-stage spectatorship in three plays by Massinger, head playwright for the King's Men from 1625 to 1640.  Meer