The Media Players: Shakespeare, Middleton, Jonson, and the Idea of News Stephen Wittek Department of English McGill University, Montreal June 2013 A thesis submitted to McGill University in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy © Stephen Wittek 2013 ii Abstract I argue that the early modern theatre made a significant contribution to the development of a new, more complex, idea of news that began to take root in the early seventeenth century. Unlike other means of representing current events, theatrical discourse did not present itself as true—it depended for effect on a knowing disengagement from reality, an implicit awareness that Burbage was not really Richard III and the Globe theatre was not really Bosworth Field. Compounding this formal barrier to reality, dramatists of the period typically approached topical concerns from an oblique angle, or from behind the guise of a sophisticated conceit, thus making the connection to news a matter of imaginative interpretation, or play. Paradoxically, however, such techniques did not fence the theatre off from news culture but in fact made it a unique space where formative thinking about the news could flourish, a space where the concept of news could become manifest from an elucidating distance and could accrue value in an emotionally and intellectually resonant register. Chapter One offers a parallel history of theatre and news and then moves to a discussion of how both forms contributed to a shift in early modern publicity. In the three chapters that follow, this historical and theoretical framework is applied to readings of The Winter’s Tale (Shakespeare), A Game at Chess (Middleton), and The Staple of News (Jonson). Overall, the analysis shows how the theatre of Shakespeare, Middleton, and Jonson enriched news culture by providing a forum where a rigorous, but iii playful, re-thinking of news could develop—thereby opening up new opportunities for participation in public life. iv Résumé Dans cette thèse, j’avance que théâtre moderne a permis un progrès significatif dans le développement d’une conception nouvelle et plus complexe de l’information, telle qu’elle commença à prendre forme au début du 17ème siècle. Contrairement à d’autres sources de diffusion de l’information, le discours théâtral ne se prétendait pas comme vrai – il reposait plutôt sur un désengagement voulu de la réalité, sur un savoir implicite que Burbage n’était pas vraiment Richard III et que le théâtre du Globe n’était pas Bosworth Field. En amplifiant cet écart formel avec réalité, les dramaturges de la période abordaient des sujets d’actualité de manière oblique, ou sous le déguisement d’une métaphore sophistiquée, faisant ainsi du lien avec l’actualité matière au jeu interprétatif ou imaginatif. Cependant, de façon paradoxale, le retrait de la réalité opéré par le théâtre n’a pas mis ce dernier à l’écart de la culture de l’information, mais en a fait un espace unique où une réflexion formatrice sur l’information a pu se développer, un espace où les idées et les questions fondamentales au concept d’information ont pu prendre forme grâce à une distance éclairante, et acquérir une valeur d’un registre aussi bien émotionnel qu’intellectuel. Le premier chapitre relate en parallèle l’histoire du théâtre et celle de l’information, puis explore la manière dont tous deux ont contribué à opérer un tournant dans la médiatisation à l’ère moderne. Dans les trois chapitres suivants, ce cadre historique et théorique est appliqué à la lecture de The Winter’s Tale (Shakespeare), A Game at Chess (Middleton), et The Staple of News (Jonson). Notre analyse montre finalement v comment le théâtre de Shakespeare, Middleton et Johnson a enrichi la culture de l’information en offrant un forum où réflexion aussi rigoureuse que ludique sur l’information a pu se développer, créant ainsi de nouvelles occasions de participer à la vie publique. vi Acknowledgements This study was carried out with a scholarship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Additional financial support came in the form of research assistantships and teaching assignments in the Department of English at McGill. I want to express my sincere gratitude to these institutions and to the many people who have helped to make the past four years a profoundly rewarding experience. Paul Yachnin has been a superb academic supervisor and a tremendous source of inspiration, encouragement, and friendship—providing me with an ideal model of academic generosity and excellence. I am also very grateful for the help and support I have received from Professor Kenneth Borris, Professor Wes Folkerth, Professor Allan Hepburn, Professor Michael Van Dussen, Dr Joshua McEvilla, and the members of my PhD cohort: Claudine Gélinas-Faucher, Danielle Barkley, Kaitlyn Pinder, Renaud Roussel, Anna Sigg, and Anna Lewton-Brain. On a personal note, I also want to thank my mother, Coleen Wittek, and my grandparents, Dorothy and Samuel Close, who taught me how to work hard and love even harder. Above all, however, I am grateful for the wit and loving companionship of my very gracious and savvy wife, Heejung Yoon, who recognized potential in me that I myself did not know I had—this accomplishment is as much hers as it is mine (사랑해요). Finally, I want to thank my son, William Wittek, and my daughter, Lily Wittek. To be honest, neither of you were any help at all, but you provided limitless joy and comfort, making the overall experience way more fun than any graduate student has a right to expect. vii Contents Abstract ii Résumé iv Acknowledgements vi List of Illustrations ix I. Introduction: Early modern drama and the idea of news 1 I.i. Theatre and news: a brief history 2 I.ii. The idea of news 12 I.iii. Public sphere theory 18 I.iv. Public making and printed news 27 II. The Winter’s Tale 45 II.i. Shakespeare and news 45 II.ii. The introduction of Autolycus in 4.3: broadsheets and Mercury 57 II.iii. The meaning of a balladeer on a London stage in 1610 65 II.iv. Ballads, pamphlets, monstrous births, and singing fish 79 II.v. The Winter’s Tale, news, truth, and belief 90 II.vi. ‘Times news’ and new forms of knowledge 96 III. A Game at Chess 103 III.i. Middleton and news 108 III.ii. The discovery narrative and the purported ‘whiteness of the English court 113 viii III.iii. Hispanophobia and Hispanophilia 129 III.iv. Theatre as news event 137 IV. The Staple of News 151 IV.i. Jonson and news 152 IV.ii. The Gossips and Jonson’s parenthetical ‘hello’ 165 IV.iii. The Prologues and the note to readers 174 IV.iv. The Staple 182 IV.v. The mock-news in 3.2 189 Conclusion: News is what they say it is 200 Appendix: Frequent names in Butter newsbooks, 1623-1626 206 Bibliography 209 Critical Editions 209 Contemporary documents (letters, licenses, etc.) 210 Contemporary publications 214 Secondary Sources 220 ix List of Illustrations Title page for Heuy newes of an horryble earth quake […] 28 First page of Heuy newes of an horryble earth quake […] 30 Title page for The Continuation of our Newes […] 34 Title page for the first issue of Mercurius Gallobelgicus 63 The lamentable complaint of Fraunce (ballad) 71 Title page for Strange nevves out of Kent […] 87 Third page of Strange nevves out of Kent 88 Mistress Turner’s Farewell to All Women (ballad) 112 Giesuiti (The Jesuit Order) by Odoardo Fialetti 137 Portrait of Don Diego Sarmiento de Acuña, Count de Gondomar, by Daniel Mitjens 140 Title page for The Second Part of Vox Populi 141 Title page for A Game at Chess, Quarto 3 142 Title page for A Game at Chess, Quarto 1 143 Illustration of the Blackfriars Playhouse 173 Title page for More newes; containing, the troubles in the Empire upon the comming of Bethlem Gabor 194 1 I. Introduction: Early modern drama and the idea of news This study builds a case for the central, formative function of theatre in the news culture of early modern England. In an analysis that combines literary criticism with historical research and recent developments in public sphere theory, I argue that the unique discursive space created by commercial theatre helped to foster the conceptual framework that made news possible. On this view, the animating force behind the emergence of news culture lies, not so much in any specific technology, but in the sophisticated idea of ‘the news’ itself: the distinctly modern notion of ephemeral, narratively-structured, ostensibly truthful discourse standing in relation to a continuous, public present. In other words, the analysis here puts emphasis on the innovative concept of news—an approach that moves away from histories that explain the emergence of news as a product of advances in print technology. News was not a latent phenomenon just waiting for print to come along and make it happen, nor was it an idea constituted exclusively or even primarily by print media. Rather, the evolution of news-related thinking derived force and direction from various, interconnected forms of publicity—theatre in particular. The unique role theatre played in the development of news hinges on the distinctive position it took up in regard to topicality and the truth. Unlike other means of representing current events, theatrical discourse did not present itself as true—it depended for effect on a knowing disengagement from reality, an implicit awareness that Burbage was not really Richard III and the Globe theatre was not really Bosworth Field. Compounding this formal barrier to reality, dramatists of 2 the period typically approached topical concerns from an oblique angle, or from behind the guise of a sophisticated conceit, thus making the connection to news a matter of imaginative interpretation, or play.