Download or read book Treating the Public written by Rachael Ball and published by LSU Press. This book was released on 2017-04-10 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Treating the Public is a comparative history of commercial theater, charitable organizations of welfare and public health, and public opinion in important cities in the Spanish and Anglo Atlantic Worlds during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It examines theater as a cultural, political, and social phenomenon, especially in Spain and its empire. This unique study highlights public drama’s rapid expansion into urban daily life in the Spanish Atlantic, where men and women provided and sought entertainment while engaging in Catholic piety and poor relief.