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ENGUSH MORAL INTERLUDE Douglas William Hayes A RHETORICAL SUBVERSION 1s THE ENGUSH MORAL INTERLUDE Douglas William Hayes A dissertation submitted in conformity with the requirernents for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Department of English University of Toronto O Copyright by Douglas William Hayes 2000 National Library Bibliothèque natior\ale 1+1 ofhnacîa du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographic Services senrices bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395. tue WeWmgton OltawaON K1AW WONK1AW CanaQa CMada The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive Licence ailowing the exclusive permettant à la National Library of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distribute or seil reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in rnicrofonn, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic fonnats. la forme de microfiche/film, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts fkom it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be p~tedor otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. Rhetorical Subversion in the English Moral Interlude Doctor of Phitosophy, 2000 Douglas William Hayes Department of Eaglish, University of Toronto My focus of study is the popular English moral interlude and later relateci plays, frorn The Castle of Perseverance (circa 1425) to the end of the Tudor period. 1 view these plays froma a perspective that centers on the use of rhetoric as a means of persuasion, and the ways in which that means of persuasion is placed in the service of good and evil ends--often simultaneously. The ambivalent and often hilarious words of a Vice figure are supposed to lure the audience into compiicity with sin, and they do their job well in many moral plays and their later counterparts. The attraction of these characters goes beyond the entrapment of other characters and the audience. They often deliberately use rhetoncal tropes and figures to further their own ends, and thereby undermine any notions of the inherent stability of laquage as a truth-bearing medium. The good characters, on the other hand, generaiiy do not have enough of a drarnatic presence to counteract the effects of the Vice figures upon the audience even though the static nature of the good characters is precisely what this moral drama tries to emphasize. The moral interlude communicates 'good' moral doctrine, but its drarnatic structure would seem to make it a theatre of subversion. Although the relationship between the Vice and the audience has been a rnainstay of studies of medieval and Tudor drama for a generation, the subversive nature and methodology of the Vice have not been examineci in any detail. 1 rnake such an examination the basis of rny study by tracking this figure from his appearance as Backbiter in The Castle of Perseverance and the N-Town plays, through some of his manifestations in the Vices of Mankind, Nichol Newfangle from FulweU's Like iii Will to bke, and Ambidexter from Preston's Cambises, to his role as Mep hastophilis in Marlowe's hctor Faus tus, and culmina ting wi th an investigation of Shakespeare's Falstaff in I Henry IV and Iago in Othello. 1 attempt to recover those aspects of performance that support rhetoncal subversion in tandem with an e.uamination of the plays as sites of elquence. Acknowledgments I would like to take this opportunity to thank those organizations who generously supplied the funding that made the research for and writing of this dissertation possible: the School of Graduate Studies at the University of Toronto, for University of Toronto Open Feliowships during the l994-9S, 1995- 9G, and 1997-98 years; the Ontario Ministry of Education and Training, for Ontario Graduate Scholarships in 1996-97 and 1998-99: and the Department of English at the University of Toronto for a Viola Whitney Pratt Mernorial Scholarship in English for 1999. Thanks are also due to Professor David Y. Klausner, my supervisor, for his sustauleci guidance, and to Professor Alexandra F. Johnston and Professor David Townsend for theu insightful commentary at every stage. Professor J. A. B. Somerset of the University of Western Ontario undertook his role as esternal examiner with generosity and su bs tan tial critical acuity, and Professor Mchael Divon contributed his considerable experience as a rhetoncian. Professor Joanna Dutka lent critical, moral, and practicai support to this project €rom start to fiish. Once again, my thanks to ail. To my parents, Calvin and Doma Hayes, and to my spouse's parents, Dan and Eleanor Wong, I owe a debt of gratitude that words are insufficient to repay. Perhaps an undertaking of this sort is best measured in the countless accommodations, large and small, financial and personal, that one's family makes to allow one to complete it. Chow Lien-Hung, my grandmother-in-law was generous both with words of encouragement and with financial support. Finally, my partner, Angie Wong-Hayes, deserves my greatest thanks for her scholarly judgement and unstintiog generosity of spirit. Contents Abstract Acknowledgments introduction 1. Backbiter 2. Mankind 3. Sichol Sewfangle 4. Ambidexter 5. Mephastophilis 6. Falstaff and Iago Conclusion Works Consuited Introduction My focus of study is the popular English moral interlude and later relateci drama, from The Castle of Perseverance (circa 1425 through to the end of the Tudor period. 1 view these plays from a perspective that centers on the use of rhetonc as a means of persuasion, and the ways in which that means of persuasion is placed in the service of 'good' and 'evil' ends-often simultaneously. Characters that subvert the sanctioned uses of rhetoric can be seen to be more attractive to an audience than the static. morally correct 'good' characters; the increasing incidence and formal narning of the Vice figure in plays throughout the 1500s can be interpreted as evidence of this attraction on the parts of the original spectators. The ambivalent and often hilarious words of a Vice figure are supposed to lure the audience into complicity with sin, and they do their job very well in many moral plays and their later counterparts. Indeed, they seem to work too weli. The attraction of these characters goes beyond the entrapment of other characters and the audience. They often ddiberately use rhetorical tropes and figures to further their own ends, and thereby undermine any notions of the inherent stability of language as a truth-bearing medium, They undermine the officially sanctioned norm of the period, that is, that "wordes moote be cosyn to the dede," and present subversive rhetoric to the audience as an alternative to that nom. The 'good' characters, on the other hand, generaily do not have enough of a dramatic presence to counteract the effects of the Vice figures upon the audience even though the static nature of the 'good' characters is precisely what chis ostensibly moral drama tries to emphasize. Cod's word may be unchanging, but it is often upstaged by what is supposed to be evil. The moral interlude communicates 'good' moral doctrine, but its very dramatic structure would seem to rnake it a theatre of subversion. 1 intend to try to demonsuate the extent to whïch this is the case. Aithough the relationship between the Vice and the audience has been a rnainstay of studies of medieval and Tudor drama for a generation. the subversive nature and methodolog)' of the Vice have not ken examined in any detaii. 1 rnake such an e-uamiaation the basis of my study by tracking this rhetoncized and rhetoricizing figure from bis appearance as Backbiter in The Casde of Perseverance and the N- Town plays, through his various manifestations as a corrupter in the Vices of Mankind, Nichol Newfangle from Fulwell's Like Wiii to Like, and Ambidexter from Cambises, to his role as the persuasive Mephastophilis in Marlowe's Doctor Fausrus, and cuiminating with an investigation of the extent to which he inheres in the language of Shakespeare's Falstaff and Iago. My approach is both rhetorical and, to a lirnited extent, dramaturgical; 1 recover those aspects of performance that support rhetorical subversion in tandem with an e.xamhation of the plays as sites of eloquence. Much Like social satire as a broadiy defÏÏed genre ui our own time, these plays pick up on popular trends, discourses, ultimately, what we would cd1 ideology, and transform that in th& representations. Consequently, I avoid the overly rigid designations of 'morality play,' 'biblical cirama,' 'interlude,' 'history play' and 'tragedy' because, for my purposes, these plays as a whole exhibit more similarities than differences. Ln each case, the moraüy ordered play-world, no mat ter whether it is populated with dramatically realized allegorical abstractions, biblical personages, fictional characters or historical l~eeRobert Potter. The hgfishMorality Play: Origins. Hisfory and Influence of a Dramatic Tradition (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1975) for a considered discussion of these similarities from the perspectives of convention and myth, Edmund Creeth, in Mankynde in Shakespeare (Athens: U of Georgia P, 19/6), locates these similarities in shared archetypes. Alan C. Dessen, "Homilies and Anomalies: The LRgacy of the Morality Play to the Age of Shakespeare," Shakespeare Stuàïes 2 ( 1978): 243-5 8 provides thoughtful reviews of both books. women and men, is disrupted by a figure or figures who in part stand outside that moraiiy ordered world. What this suggests is not only a deep and abiding anxiety over the moral ambiguity of rhetonc, but also a continuum of dramatic representation that fmds its center in the deliberately ambivalent deployment of language.
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