The peryod of my blisse

This essay considers evidence that commas were used in the Edward Allde print shop to denote a particular kind of interruption, and draws out how an attention to those interruptions shapes a reading of the 1592 play Solyman and Perseda, often attributed to Thomas Kyd. In doing this, the essay suggests that greater levels of literary interpretation are evinced in early modern compositors’ work than is normally acknowledged, and that this should be brought to bear on the editing and discussion of the texts they produced.