DOCSLIB.ORG

Grace, Sexuality, and Genre in Thomas Middleton's City Comedies. Herbert Jack Heller Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Grace, Sexuality, and Genre in Thomas Middleton's City Comedies. Herbert Jack Heller Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses Graduate School 1997 Penitent Brothellers: Grace, Sexuality, and Genre in Thomas Middleton's City Comedies. Herbert Jack Heller Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses Recommended Citation Heller, Herbert Jack, "Penitent Brothellers: Grace, Sexuality, and Genre in Thomas Middleton's City Comedies." (1997). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 6492. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/6492 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UME films the text direct^ from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter frœe; while others may be from any type o f computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dqiendent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct prmt, colored or poor quality illustrations and photognq>hs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversety afifect reproductioiL hi the unlikety event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the ddetion. Oversize materials (e g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, b%inning at the upper left-hand comer and continuing from Idt to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Each original is also photographed in one exposure and is included in reduced form at the back o f the book. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographicalty in this copy. Higher quality 6” x 9” black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directty to order. UMI A Bell & Ifowell Information Compaiy 300 North Zceb Road, Ann Arbor MI 48106-1346 USA 313/761-4700 800/521-0600 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. PENITENT BROTHELLERS: GRACE, SEXUALITY, AND GENRE IN THOMAS MIDDLETON'S CITY COMEDIES A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of English by Herbert Jack Heller B. A., Bryan College, 1985 M. A., Louisiana State University, 1989 June 1997 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: 9808749 Copyright 1997 by Heller, Herbert Jack All rights reserved. UMI Microform 9808749 Copyright 1997, hy UMI Company. Ail rights reserved. This microform édition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. UMI 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, MI 48103 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ©Copyright 1997 H erbert Jack Heller All rights reserved 11 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Acknowledgements Members of my dissertation committee include Dr. Gale Carrithers (Chair), Dr. Anna Nardo, Dr. Kevin Cope, and Dr. Carolyn Jones. I have enjoyed their encouragement, patience, and constructive suggestions through the long process of writing this study. I am most grateful for their guidance throughout. Extra thanks go to Dr. Carrithers for introducing me to Thomas Middleton’s works. Several scholars involved in Middleton studies have responded to my inquiries—Dr. Gary Taylor, Dr. Peter Sacdo, Dr. Mario DiGangi, and Dr. Paul Mulholland. Their help is appreciated. Thanks also to the SCCCL and SCMLA for giving me opportunities to present my research. A project like this is undertaken with the friendship, help, blessings, examples, and prayers of many friends. Deeply felt thanks go to the Wells family—John Henry, Shelley, and Amanda; the Smiths—Alvin, Kathy, Rachel, and Hannah; Karen Law; Keary Freeman; Dr. Janice Stein; the Kinchens; the McCoUisters; Skip Sharrer; David McPherson; the Louivieres; Laurie Matheme; Holly Rodick; Dr. Peter Yaukey; Brandt Hardy; Jeff DeNio; David Stonestreet; Greg and Ruth; Melinda and Billy; Nathanael and Fanny. Without moving back home, I would have never completed this work. My biggest thanks, therefore, go to my Mother and Father. With Love. Gloria in excelsis Deal 111 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Preface "Penitent Brothel" is the name of Thomas Middleton's best-known penitent, a character in A Mad World, My Masters, Middleton uses the term "brotheller" to describe Theodorus Witgood in A Trick to Catch the Old One (n. i. 3). Hence my coinage of "penitent brothellers" to refer to the penitents and converts in Middleton's comedies, the characters upon which this dissertation focuses. All of the texts which receive major consideration in this study have long been accepted as Middleton's works. However, I also refer to texts for which his authorship has only been accepted recently. Therefore, I am taking as his canon the list of works to be included in the upcoming collected works of Middleton, to be published soon by Oxford University Press. The play I refer to as The Second Maiden's Tragedy will be included as The Lady's Tragedy; the title I use comes from the edition I cite. In a few instances, I will note similarities between texts long accepted as Middleton's and those for which his audiorship has only recently been proposed; such observations, of course, strengthen the authorship arguments. However, I will not argue for the authorship of any text; the reader may refer to the editions cited and the discussions which will be in the Oxford edition. The editing principles of the texts I use vary in degrees of modernization of spelling and punctualtion. I have decided to keep the IV Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. spelling of each edition, even though this may present slight difficulties for the reader. I also use several texts for which there is no modem edition. For these only, I have modernized the usage of u, v, i, |, and s; I have also expanded the spelling of words for which the early modem abbreviation is no longer conunon: "couersant" becomes "conversant"; "yt" becomes "that" (unless "it" is intended). Any other changes are marked as such with brackets. Most Bible quotations come hom three different sources: the 1611 King James translation, Middleton's pamphletThe Two Gates of Salvation, and the Geneva Bible. The quotes given without a specific translation reference come from the King James version. V Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Table of Contents Acknowledgements ............................................................................................ iii P refo ce.................................................................................................................. iv A b stra c t ................................................................................................................v ii One: Thomas Middleton, Calvinist D ram atist............................................. 1 I. N o te s .......................................................................................................... 33 Two: Grace, Repentance, and Genre: A Mad World, My Masters, The Widow, and A Chaste Maid in Cheapside..........................................38 I. "Is it a tragedy plot, or a comedy plot, good mother?": Repentance and Genre in Middleton Criticism....................................38 n. From Brothel to Once-Dl: Penitent's Paradigmatic Conversion in A Mad World, M y M asters.................................................................59 nr. "That he might read his actions i'th' event?": The Patterns of R ep en tan ce.............................................................................................94 IV. Sir Walter Whorehoimd's Anti-Tragic Repentance........................... 105 V. N o te s ......................................................................................................... 124 Three: Marrying the Whore: The Hosea Paradigm in A Trick to Catch the Old One and Other Plays ........................................ 136 I. N o tes...........................................................................................................158 Four: Sodomy, Salvation, and the Stage: Satires, Michaelmas Term, and Tke Roaring G ir l.................................................................................... 161 I. Unspoken Things in the Historical, Literary, and Critical Contexts 161 n. "Time was I loved Pyander well": The Wide Indication of Sodomy in Middleton's Satires .......................................................... 180 m. Undoing Sodomy: Richard Easy's Redemption in Michaelmas T e r
Load more

Recommended publications
  • THE ELIZABETHAN STAGE AS TRIBUTARY: MERCANTILISM, NATIONALISM, and SOCIAL MOBILITY in THREE POPULAR DRAMAS a Thesis Submitted To
    THE ELIZABETHAN STAGE AS TRIBUTARY: MERCANTILISM, NATIONALISM, AND SOCIAL MOBILITY IN THREE POPULAR DRAMAS A Thesis Submitted to the College of Graduate Studies and Research In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Master of Arts In the Department of English University of Saskatchewan Saskatoon By Adam Benn Keywords: Dekker, Heywood, Renaissance Drama, Mercantilism, Nationalism, Tudor Theatre. Copyright Adam Benn, August, 2011. All rights reserved. Permission to Use In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for a Postgraduate degree from the University of Saskatchewan, I agree that the Libraries of this University may make it freely available for inspection. I further agree that permission for copying of this thesis in any manner, in whole or in part, for scholarly purposes may be granted by the professor or professors who supervised my thesis work or, in their absence, by the Head of the Department or the Dean of the College in which my thesis work was done. It is understood that any copying or publication or use of this thesis or parts thereof for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. It is also understood that due recognition shall be given to me and to the University of Saskatchewan in any scholarly use which may be made of any material in my thesis. Requests for permission to copy or to make other use of material in this thesis in whole or part should be addressed to: Head of the Department of English 320 Arts Building University of Saskatchewan 9 Campus Drive Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7N 5A5 Canada Benn i ABSTRACT This thesis examines the relationship between social mobility, early mercantilism, and nationalism in three Elizabethan Popular Dramas: Thomas Dekker's The Shoemaker's Holiday, and Thomas Heywood's The Fair Maid of the West, Part I, and The Four Prentices of London.
    [Show full text]
  • Trades' Directory. 811
    1841.] TRADES' DIRECTORY. 811 SILK &VEL YET MANFRS.-continued. l\Iay William, 132 Bishops~ate without DentJ.30,31,32 Crawfordst.Portmansq Brandon William, 23 Spital square *Nalders, Spall & Co. 41 Cheapside Devy M. 73 Lower Grosvenor street, & Bridges & Camp bell, 19 Friday street N eill & Langlands, 45 Friday street 120 George street, Edinburgh Bridgett Joseph & Co.63 Alderman bury Perry T. W. & Co. 20 Steward st. Spitalfi *Donnon Wm.3.5Garden row, London rd British, IJ-ish, ~· Colonial Silk Go. 10~ Place & Wood, 10 Cateaton street Duthoit & Harris, 77 Bishopsgate within King's arms yard Powell John & Daniel, 1 Milk !'treet t Edgington \Yilliam, 37 Piccadilly Brocklehurst Jno. & Th. 32 & 331\-Iilk st t Price T. Divett, 19 Wilson st. Finsbury Elliot Miss Margt. Anne, 43 Pall mall Brooks Nathaniel, 25 Spital square Ratliffs & Co. 78\Vood st. Cheapside E~·les,Evans,Hands&.Wells,5Ludgatest Brown .Archbd. & Co.ltl Friday st.Chpsi Rawlinson Geo. & Co. 34 King st. City *Garnham Wm. Henry, 30 Red Lion sq *Brown James U. & Co. 3,5 Wood street Reid John & Co. 21 Spital square George & Lambert, 192 Regent street *Brunskill Chas.& Wm.5 Paternostr.rw Relph & Witham, 6 Mitre court, Milk st Green Saml. 7 Lit. Aygyll st.llegent st Brunt Josiah, & Co.12 Milk st. Cheapsi Remington, Mills & Co. 30 Milk street Griffiths & Crick, 1 Chandos street Bullock Wm. & Co. 11 Paternoster row tRobinsonJas.&Wm.3&4Milkst.Chepsid +Hall Hichanl, 29 St. John street Buttre~s J. J. & Son, 36Stewardst.Spital RobinsonJ. & T. 21 to 23 Fort st. Spitalfi *Hamer & Jones, 59 Blackfriars road Buttress John, 15 Spital square Salter J.
    [Show full text]
  • When Faith Takes Flight
    When Faith Takes Flight Lessons from 30,000 feet JIM WALTERS God Is Real and Can Be Trusted What Others Are Saying About When Faith Takes Flight “I first met Jim Walters in 1992. It was obvious that God’s Word placed in an Air Force chapel in Thailand had a dramatic effect on his life. Jim has God’s call in his life to proclaim God’s love and His goodness through his preaching and his writings. When Faith Takes Flight contains the everyday, common principles that any believer can clearly understand and easily apply in our oftentimes tumultuous world. It is a most practical guide.” —Jerry Burden, Executive Director, The Gideons International “You don’t have to be a pilot to soar with this book. Jim Walters’ vast flying experience has given him wonderful insight that will help you navigate through the clouds of life. When Faith Takes Flight will guide you to a gentle and safe landing in your spiritual journey. This book contains life-saving instructions for your personal safety!” —Jack Pelon, General Manager, KPOF Radio, Denver, Colorado “For over 30 years I have thought Jim Walters was one of the best preachers I know. After reading this book, I can now say he is one of the best writers I know. This book is brilliant! It is comprehensive yet simple. It takes the metaphor of an airplane and uses it to help us understand our relationship with Christ. As a believer, you will enjoy reading this and then find ways to share it with nonbelievers.” —Chris Liebrum, Baptist General Convention of Texas, Dallas, Texas 1 When Faith Takes Flight “Jim Walters stands in the pulpit of Bear Valley Church, takes the “spiritual stick” of people’s lives and guides them through God’s Word with as much reverence for Truth as for the laws of gravity.
    [Show full text]
  • Fantasies of Necrophilia in Early Modern English Drama
    City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 2-2014 Exquisite Corpses: Fantasies of Necrophilia in Early Modern English Drama Linda K. Neiberg Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/1420 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] EXQUISITE CORPSES: FANTASIES OF NECROPHILIA IN EARLY MODERN ENGLISH DRAMA by LINDA K. NEIBERG A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in English in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, The City University of New York 2014 ii © 2014 LINDA K. NEIBERG All Rights Reserved iii This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in English in satisfaction of the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Mario DiGangi Date Chair of Examining Committee Carrie Hintz Date Acting Executive Officer Mario DiGangi Richard C. McCoy Steven F. Kruger Supervisory Committee THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK iv Abstract EXQUISITE CORPSES: FANTASIES OF NECROPHILIA IN EARLY MODERN ENGLISH DRAMA by LINDA K. NEIBERG Adviser: Professor Mario DiGangi My dissertation examines representations of necrophilia in Elizabethan and Jacobean drama. From the 1580s, when London’s theatres began to flourish, until their closure by Parliament in 1642, necrophilia was deployed as a dramatic device in a remarkable number of plays.
    [Show full text]
  • The Suburbs and the City in Thomas Dekker's Shoemaker's Holiday
    Sites of transgression: The suburbs and the city in Thomas Dekker’s Shoemaker’s Holiday Paul J. C. M. Franssen Utrecht University ABSTRACT The early modern binary of the virtuous City of London versus the sinful suburbs clashes with an older binary pitting the countryside against the city. At the same time, the forces of urbanization along with early capitalism were undermining both binaries. This article traces how this is reflected in Thomas Dekker’s The Shoemaker’s Holiday . The play not only represents the City of London under Simon Eyre’s rule as, potentially, possessing all the virtues of the pastoral, but also suggests that the surrounding countryside, in particular the village of Old Ford, was being corrupted by city values. Dekker’s play, therefore, deconstructs simple dichotomies between country and city, showing how the two inevitably influence each other. KEYWORDS : Thomas Dekker, The Shoemaker’s Holiday , City Comedy, Countryside. Jean Howard’s fascinating study of City Comedy, or as she prefers to call it, London Comedy, is structured around a variety of real places within London, some specific (such as the Royal Exchange and the various Counters or debtors’ prisons), others generic (such as bawdy houses and dancing academies). Howard associates these places within London with various discourses of gender, national identity, class, and the new money values. She regards these discourses as not primarily reflections of what really happened at these sites, but at least as much as constituting ways of thinking about such places, turning them into meaningful social spaces (2007:3, 32). Howard shows how the explosive growth of London into a world city undermined old certainties, often cast in the form of simple binaries, Sederi 22 (2012: 139-154) P.
    [Show full text]
  • 861 Sq Ft Headquarters Office Building Your Own Front Door
    861 SQ FT HEADQUARTERS OFFICE BUILDING YOUR OWN FRONT DOOR This quite unique property forms part of the building known as Rotherwick House. The Curve comprises a self-contained building, part of which is Grade II Listed, which has been comprehensively refurbished to provide bright contemporary Grade A office space. The property — located immediately to the east of St Katharine’s Dock and adjoining Thomas More Square — benefits from the immediate area which boasts a wide variety of retail and restaurant facilities. SPECIFICATION • Self-contained building • Generous floor to ceiling heights • New fashionable refurbishment • Full-height windows • New air conditioning • Two entrances • Floor boxes • Grade II Listed building • LG7 lighting with indirect LED up-lighting • Fire and security system G R E A ET T THE TEA TRE E D S A BUILDING OL S T E R SHOREDITCH N S HOUSE OLD STREET T R E E T BOX PARK AD L RO NWEL SHOREDITCH CLERKE C I HIGH STREET T Y R G O O A S D W S F H A O E R L U A L R T AD T H I O R T R N A S STEPNEY D’ O O M AL G B N A GREEN P O D E D T H G O T O WHITECHAPEL A N N R R R O D BARBICAN W O CHANCERY E A FARRINGDON T N O LANE D T T E N H A E M C T N O C LBOR A D O HO M A IGH MOORGATE G B O H S R R U TOTTENHAM M L R LIVERPOOL P IC PE T LO E COURT ROAD NDON WA O K A LL R N R H STREET H C L C E E O S A I SPITALFIELDS I IT A A W B N H D L E W STE S R PNEY WAY T O J R U SALESFORCE A E HOLBORN B T D REE TOWER E ST N I D L XFOR E G T O W R E K G ES H ALDGATE I A H E N TE A O M LONDON MET.
    [Show full text]
  • Central London Bus and Walking Map Key Bus Routes in Central London
    General A3 Leaflet v2 23/07/2015 10:49 Page 1 Transport for London Central London bus and walking map Key bus routes in central London Stoke West 139 24 C2 390 43 Hampstead to Hampstead Heath to Parliament to Archway to Newington Ways to pay 23 Hill Fields Friern 73 Westbourne Barnet Newington Kentish Green Dalston Clapton Park Abbey Road Camden Lock Pond Market Town York Way Junction The Zoo Agar Grove Caledonian Buses do not accept cash. Please use Road Mildmay Hackney 38 Camden Park Central your contactless debit or credit card Ladbroke Grove ZSL Camden Town Road SainsburyÕs LordÕs Cricket London Ground Zoo Essex Road or Oyster. Contactless is the same fare Lisson Grove Albany Street for The Zoo Mornington 274 Islington Angel as Oyster. Ladbroke Grove Sherlock London Holmes RegentÕs Park Crescent Canal Museum Museum You can top up your Oyster pay as Westbourne Grove Madame St John KingÕs TussaudÕs Street Bethnal 8 to Bow you go credit or buy Travelcards and Euston Cross SadlerÕs Wells Old Street Church 205 Telecom Theatre Green bus & tram passes at around 4,000 Marylebone Tower 14 Charles Dickens Old Ford Paddington Museum shops across London. For the locations Great Warren Street 10 Barbican Shoreditch 453 74 Baker Street and and Euston Square St Pancras Portland International 59 Centre High Street of these, please visit Gloucester Place Street Edgware Road Moorgate 11 PollockÕs 188 TheobaldÕs 23 tfl.gov.uk/ticketstopfinder Toy Museum 159 Russell Road Marble Museum Goodge Street Square For live travel updates, follow us on Arch British
    [Show full text]
  • Mary Frith at the Fortune
    Early Theatre 10.1 (2007) MARK HUTCHINGS Mary Frith at the Fortune Sir Alexander Wengrave’s remarks in The Roaring Girl (1611), as he surveys the audience, gesture playfully to the Fortune’s reputation for cutpurses, con- necting the place of performance with the play’s subject. This speech is an early sign of the play’s complex relationship with Mary Frith, and from the scholar’s vantage-point an unwittingly ironic moment of metatheatre.1 Ob- serving to his companions that ‘Th’inner room was too close; how do you like / This parlour, gentlemen?’ (1.2.6–7), he casts his eye on the faces above, below, and around:2 Nay, when you look into my galleries – How bravely they are trimmed up – you all shall swear You’re highly pleased to see what’s set down there: Stories of men and women, mixed together Fair ones with foul, like sunshine in wet weather – Within one square a thousand heads are laid So close that all of heads the room seems made; As many faces there, filled with blithe looks, Show like the promising titles of new books Writ merrily, the readers being their own eyes, Which seem to move and give plaudities; And here and there, whilst with obsequious ears Thronged heaps do listen, a cutpurse thrusts and leers With hawk’s eyes for his prey – I need not show him: By a hanging villainous look yourselves may know him, The face is drawn so rarely. Then, sir, below, The very floor, as ’twere, waves to and fro, And, like a floating island, seems to move Upon a sea bound in with shores above.
    [Show full text]
  • Actes Des Congrès De La Société Française Shakespeare, 33 | 2015 Middleton Beyond the Canon 2
    Actes des congrès de la Société française Shakespeare 33 | 2015 Shakespeare 450 Middleton beyond the Canon Daniela Guardamagna Electronic version URL: http://journals.openedition.org/shakespeare/3394 DOI: 10.4000/shakespeare.3394 ISSN: 2271-6424 Publisher Société Française Shakespeare Electronic reference Daniela Guardamagna, « Middleton beyond the Canon », Actes des congrès de la Société française Shakespeare [Online], 33 | 2015, Online since 10 October 2015, connection on 08 June 2020. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/shakespeare/3394 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/shakespeare.3394 This text was automatically generated on 8 June 2020. © SFS Middleton beyond the Canon 1 Middleton beyond the Canon Daniela Guardamagna 1 The old canon of Thomas Middleton1 has been deeply modified in the last forty years by attribution studies, by the analysis of philologists and the work of MacDonald P. Jackson, David Lake and Roger Holdsworth,2 and especially after the issue of what has been defined as “Middleton’s First Folio”, that is his Collected Works and Textual Companion, edited by Gary Taylor and John Lavagnino.3 2 Critics are now aware that there are many clues hinting at the fact that the ‘new Middleton’ is very different from the author that was proposed till the last decades of the 20th century, that is the cold, misogynist, clinical analyst of the society around him (“a 17th-century Ibsen or Zola”, as he was defined4), and that the new figure presents striking features which greatly modify our perception of his work. 3 In this paper I will concentrate on a specific instance concerning the new canon: the modification of female characters that becomes apparent in Middleton’s writing, considering the new plays, the tragedies in particular, that have been definitely attributed to him in the 2007 Collected Works.
    [Show full text]
  • Why Does Plato's Laws Exist?
    University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2017 Why Does Plato's Laws Exist? Harold Parker University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the Philosophy Commons Recommended Citation Parker, Harold, "Why Does Plato's Laws Exist?" (2017). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 2515. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2515 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2515 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Why Does Plato's Laws Exist? Abstract If the ideal city described at length in Plato’s Republic is a perfect and philosophically attractive encapsulation of Plato’s political philosophy, why does Plato go on to write the Laws – which also describes an ideal city, albeit one very different from the Republic? The fundamental challenge of scholarship concerning the Laws is to supply a comprehensive account of the dialogue that explains all aspects of it while also distinguishing the Laws from the Republic in a way that does not devalue the Laws as a mere afterthought to the Republic. Past attempts at meeting this challenge, I argue, can be classified under the headings of the democratic, legal, and demiurgic approaches. Although each is prima facie plausible, each also faces its own set of problems. Furthermore, none are truly capable of explaining the Laws in its full specificity; the intricate array of customs, regulations, and practices making up the life of the city described form a complex totality not reducible to the concept of democracy, the rule of law, or demiurgy.
    [Show full text]
  • The Prosecution and Punishment of Animals and Lifeless Things in the Middle Ages and Modern Times
    THE PROSECUTION AND PUNISHMENT OF ANIMALS AND LIFELESS THINGS IN THE MIDDLE AGES AND MODERN TIMES. The Prytaneum was the Hotel de Ville of Athens as of every Greek town. In it was the common hearth of the city, which represented the unity and vitality of the community. From its perpetual fire, colonists, like the American Indians, would carry sparks to their new homes, as a symbol of fealty to the mother city, and here in very early times the prytanis or chief- tain probably dwvelt. In the Prytaneum at Athens the statues of Eirene (Peace) and Hestia (Ilearth) stood; foreign ambassa- dors, famous citizens, athletes, and strangers were entertained there at the public expense; the laws of the great law-giver Solon were displayed within it and before his day the chief archon made it his home. One of the important features of the Prytaneum at Athens were the curious murder trials held in its immediate vicinity. Many Greek writers mention these trials, which appear to have comprehended three kinds of cases. In the first place, if a murderer was unknown or could not be found, he was never- theless tri'ed at this court.' Then inanimate things-such as stones, beams, pliece of iron, ctc.,-which had caused the death of a man by falling upon him-were put on trial at the Pry- tancuni ;2 and lastly animals, which had similarly been the cause 3 of death. Though all these trials were of a ceremonial character, they were carried on with due process of law. Thus, as in all murder trials at Athens, because of 'the religious feeling back of them that such crimes were against the gods as much as against men, they took place in the open air, that the judges might not be contaminated by the pollution supposed to exhale from the 'Aristotle, Constitulion (if :thens, 57, 4; Pollux, Vill, x2o; cf.
    [Show full text]
  • The Economics of Gender Relations in London City Comedy
    THE ECONOMICS OF GENDER RELATIONS IN LONDON CITY COMEDY BY KRISTIN WEISSE A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS English May, 2015 Winston-Salem, North Carolina Approved By: Sarah Hogan, Ph.D., Advisor Olga Valbuena, Ph.D., Chair Susan Harlan, Ph.D. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to thank Dr. Hogan— not only for her helpful input and guidance throughout the process of writing this thesis, but also for inspiring my interest in Elizabethan and Jacobean literature through her remarkable energy and enthusiasm. In addition, a special thanks to Dr. Harlan and Dr. Valbuena, whose Renaissance drama classes further solidified my desire to research London city comedy and whose suggestions were also integral to the completion of this project. I am immensely grateful to have had the opportunity to work with such an intelligent and lively group of women. Moreover, I would like to thank my friends and teammates for their constant love and encouragement throughout my entire time as a graduate student at Wake Forest. Thank you especially to my “soulmates” Lizzie and Kelly for the endless trips to Camino (which made thesis writing so much more enjoyable), the ice cream dates, the epic road-trips, and for always being there for me to lean on and to learn from. Thank you also to Sam, Kaitlyn, Kathleen, Aubrey, and Chandler for the constant motivation both intellectually and physically (whether out on the trails, on the track, or even just lounging around the kitchen of 1022 Polo), and for the much-needed distractions from writing and reading.
    [Show full text]