Collections XVII is the latest volume in the Malone Society's pioneering series of editions of miscellaneous documents relating to English theatre and drama before 1642. It is likely to be of special interest not only to early theatre historians but to those working on Tudor and Stuart court and civic culture, manuscript writing, household drama and early modern women's writing, as it publishes new material in each of these fields. The book includes items such as Revels Office accounts, a playscript fragment, entertainments, poems and civic shows. Many of these documents are previously unpublished, and have been freshly edited and transcribed; each has an introduction giving details of its date, authorship and historical importance.

The volume will be essential reading for postgraduates and university teachers in early modern drama, theatre history and women's writing.