Note 535 — Chapter XV
Reading edition
Miss Gildersleeve, in her valuable Government Regulation of the Elizabethan Drama, p. 112, says: "Just what is the meaning of 'a new Play without Book' no one seems to have conjectured." And she develops the theory that "it refers to the absence of a licensed play-book," etc. The phrase "to learn without book" meant simply "to memorize."