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That's an enormous topic. You might want to chop it down a little. First, limit it to England. Second, limit it to Puritanism. Third, limit it to 1577-1600 (that's when most of the juicy religious stuff happened). Fourth, you may want to limit it to a specific Puritan, such as John Field, or an event, such as the Marprelate controversy. John Field was active in condemning the theater; his son, Nathan, was a child and adult star player (he was also a dramatist). There is a lot published work about John and Nathan Field. For John, check out the work of Patrick Collinson. His book "Godly People...." has a whole chapter on John Field. Collinson is the leading expert on him. For Nathan (I'm doing a biography on him right now), there are two books that should be in your library. There is one by Roberta Brinkley, "Nathan Field, ...." and another by William Peery, "The Plays of Nathan Field." Both have short, digestible, biographies about John at the beginning of each. The monarchy was all over the theater. It provided censorship, political cover, and lots more. Elizabeth deserves a lot of the credit for helping develop the industry (she loved theater). One of her larger impacts was the subtle co-creation of the Children of the Chapel Royal boy acting troop. Now THERE's a story (see Michael Shapiro's book "The Children of the Revels.") James enjoyed theater too, but some of the plays made him mad from time to time. James once had Jonson, Chapman, and possibly some of the boy actors from the Blackfriar's Boys, put in jail for a performance he found offensive. There is a good story in that (see Peery for starters). I'm a historian, so I can't help you much with the literature. You'll want to talk to your professor, however, about Hamlet, King Lear, and Richard III. There were some political undertones in there regarding the monarchy. Shakespeare was pretty good at dodging bullets, so there aren't a lot of juicy stories there. There are far more with Jonson, Chapman, and Marlowe. For more general works, I'd start with these: Gurr, Andrew. The Shakespearean Stage: 1574 - 1642. 3rd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1992. Chambers, E. K. "Humanism and Puritanism." In The Elizabethan Stage. Vol. 2. Oxford, UK: Clarendon P, 1923. 237-267. Thompson, Elbert N. S. The Controversy Between the Puritans and the Stage. New York: Henry Holt, 1903. (This one is old, but easy to read... it should be general enough for you...it should be in the university library). Good luck, Mike Radice The Union Institute