Intermedial Props in Shakespeare’s Roman Plays

In Shakespeare’s Roman plays props often acquire an intermedial quality, that is, a capacity of drawing attention to themselves as the locus of the transit of information in a communication system that was rapidly growing in size and complexity in the Renaissance. Tablets, rolls and letters, painted cloths, embroidery samples etc. reference different media and arts that relate to each other, thus highlighting both the hypermedial nature of the stage and the many channels through which classical culture was transferred from antiquity to the Renaissance.