Emergent Identity Masculinity and the Representation of Rape on the Early Modern Stage, 1590-1620
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Emergent Identity Masculinity and the Representation of Rape on the Early Modern Stage, 1590-1620 by Andrew Bretz A Thesis presented to The University of Guelph In partial fulfilment of requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Literary Studies/Theatre Studies in English Guelph, Ontario, Canada © Andrew Bretz, August, 2012 ABSTRACT EMERGENT IDENTITY MASCULINITY AND THE REPRESENTATION OF RAPE ON THE EARLY MODERN STAGE, 1590-1620 Andrew Ryan Bretz Advisor: University of Guelph, 2012 Professor Paul Mulholland This thesis is an investigation of the representation of the figure of the man who raped on the early modern stage. The early modern “man who raped” must be distinguished from the modern term “rapist” insofar as the modern term ascribes an ontological or sociological position to the individual male that was alien to the early modern world view. The shifting value of “rape” in the early modern period presaged more modern conceptions of rape as “an experience imposed on an embodied subject, a violent sexual assault that in its corporal nature destabilizes the intersubjective personhood of the victim” (Cahill 207). As such, the shifting values of the term also prefigured more modern conceptions of masculinity and the successful performance of masculine values. The figure of the man who raped on the early modern English stage often was not merely the monster against which successful forms of masculine behaviour could be contrasted – often such characters found a sympathetic audience. And often, that audience was encouraged and directed through paratextual and dramaturgical devices to see themselves in and identify with the man who raped, for he could be redeemed. This thesis uses the lens of the Roman play to investigate sexual assault because Roman plays clarified masculine ideals for the early moderns; Rome, civilization, manliness, stoic self-control and virtus on the early modern stage were all coincident terms that articulated sexual difference and therefore the construction of the male subject (Kahn 15). The first section looks extensively at the English inheritance of Roman and Anglo-Saxon laws on sexual assault, while the subsequent chapters turn to early modern drama more closely. The plays under study are Marston’s Wonder of Women, Heywood’s Rape of Lucrece, Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus, Middleton’s Hengist, King of Kent, and Fletcher’s Bonduca. iv Dedication and Acknowledgements I would like to thank the members of my examination committee and my steering committee: Julie Cairnie, Paul Mulholland, Viviana Comensoli, Ric Knowles, Jean Howard, Mark Fortier, and Michael Keefer. I would also like to thank my colleagues Jess Riley, Mauricio Martinez, and Nick Loess for their invaluable help in reading and listening to the arguments of this dissertation. I would also like to thank Cindy McMann for her support and patience throughout this whole process. v CONTENTS Contents .......................................................................................................................................... v Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 Defining Rape ............................................................................................................................. 3 Identity and Identification ........................................................................................................... 7 London and Rome ..................................................................................................................... 23 Why Theatre? ............................................................................................................................ 25 Scholarship on Masculinity and Rape ....................................................................................... 30 Chapter One: The Forms of Rape ................................................................................................. 39 Rape, Whoredom and Honesty.................................................................................................. 39 Stuprum and Raptus ............................................................................................................... 46 Whose Body Was It? ................................................................................................................. 56 Niedhæmed and Ut Álædan ................................................................................................... 62 Reintroducing Raptus and Stuprum ....................................................................................... 67 The Statutes of Westminster I and II ..................................................................................... 72 Prosecutorial Failure ................................................................................................................. 77 Tudor Innovations.................................................................................................................. 80 The Law and the Word .............................................................................................................. 89 Chapter Two: Rape-Qua-Raptus in The Wonder of Women ......................................................... 91 Masculine Obligations............................................................................................................... 97 vi Self-Objectification ................................................................................................................. 103 Raptus to Stuprum ................................................................................................................... 118 Chapter Three: Rape-Qua-Stuprum: Heywood’s The Rape of Lucrece ..................................... 121 Inheritance ............................................................................................................................... 122 Why Does Valerius Sing? ....................................................................................................... 127 Singing Trauma ....................................................................................................................... 137 Why is Lucrece Silent? ........................................................................................................... 144 Articulating Criticism .............................................................................................................. 159 Chapter Four: Two Cases of Marital Rape: Hengist: King of Kent and Titus Andronicus ......... 162 From Wedding to Divorce....................................................................................................... 164 The Rapes of Lavinia .............................................................................................................. 174 Vortiger and Failure ................................................................................................................ 189 The Un-Rapable Subject ......................................................................................................... 207 Chapter Five: Roman Flesh and British Soul: Bonduca, Rape and Chivalric Masculine Identity ..................................................................................................................................................... 210 Chivalric Ideals ....................................................................................................................... 212 Rape, Civilization and Empire ................................................................................................ 229 Sacrifice and Suicide ............................................................................................................... 233 Impossible Recovery ............................................................................................................... 249 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................. 252 vii Appendix A ................................................................................................................................. 259 Appendix B ................................................................................................................................. 261 Works Cited ................................................................................................................................ 265 1 Introduction Art thou so cruel for an honour’s bubble T’undo a whole fraternity, and disperse The secrets of most nations lost in us? (Thomas Middleton, A Game at Chess: A Later Form. 2.1.139-41) Who stands for the father of the innocent If not the judg? (John Webster, Appius and Virginia, 3.3.245-6) Oh who but Sextus could commit such waste? On one so faire, so kinde, so truly chaste? Or like a ravisher thus rudely stand, To offend this face, this brow, this lip, this hand? […] But I am lust-burnt all, bent on what’s bad, That which should calme good thought, makes Tarquin mad. (Thomas Heywood, The Rape of Lucrece, 1954-63) This dissertation investigates how the early modern stage identified a man who committed rape as a failure for his inability to exercise enough personal self-governance such that he could abide by the fraternal bonds that characterized patriarchy. He was a failure under the terms of patriarchal governance of the period, but he was a redeemable failure. That is, his failure as a man did not constitute