‘Magic through Sound: Illusion, Deception and Agreed Pretence’ METh 21 (1999) 52–65.

This paper examines explicit fifteenth- and sixteenth-century stage directions that require vocal and other kinds of sound to produce illusion. Ventriloquy, speaking through tubes, vocal aids and mimicry are examined in relation to the requirements of The Cornish Ordinalia, Peele's The Old Wives Tale, Greene and Middleton's Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay, and Greene's Alphonsus King of Aragon.