DOCSLIB.ORG

John Ford's Theatre of Ceremony: a Formal Study of His Five Major Plays

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
John Ford's Theatre of Ceremony: a Formal Study of His Five Major Plays Loyola University Chicago Loyola eCommons Dissertations Theses and Dissertations 1982 John Ford's Theatre of Ceremony: A Formal Study of His Five Major Plays Chikako D. Kumamoto Loyola University Chicago Follow this and additional works at: https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Kumamoto, Chikako D., "John Ford's Theatre of Ceremony: A Formal Study of His Five Major Plays" (1982). Dissertations. 2075. https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss/2075 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses and Dissertations at Loyola eCommons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Loyola eCommons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. Copyright © 1982 Chikako D. Kumamoto JOHN FORD'S THEATRE OF CEREMONY: A FORMAL STUDY OF HIS FIVE MAJOR PLAYS By Chikako D. Kumamoto A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Loyola University of Chicago in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy April 1982 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to thank the members of my dissertation committee, Professors Anthony LaBranche, Suzanne Gossett, Bernard McElroy, and James Rocks, whose wisdom, knowledge, and goodwill were an invaluable help, and whose dedication to scholarship was a constant source of inspiration to me. They supported my efforts, on and off the campus, with patience, understanding, and intellectual precision which mark the core of their professional and humanistic concerns. I respectfully extend to them my permanent and deepest gratitude. I also wish to express my appreciation to Professor John Shea who has guided and encouraged my graduate studies throughout my stay at Loyola. Finally I wish to thank my parents and my husband, Steven, without whose trust and care my efforts could not have been completed. ii LIFE The author, Chikako Daishin Kumamoto, is the daughter of Toshio Daishin and Mitsue (Fujii) Daishin. She was born June 3, 1940, in Shinkyo, Manchuria. Her elementary education was obtained in the public schools in Hiroshima, Japan, and secondary education at Notre Dame Immaculate Heart High School, Hiroshima, Japan, where she graduated in 1959. From 1959 to 1963, she attended Notre Dame Immaculate Heart University, Okayama, Japan, where she received a Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in English in 1963. From 1963 to 1965, she attended Hiroshima University in Hiroshima, Japan, where she received a Master of Arts degree in English in 1965. In 1965, she was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to study at Marquette University, where she graduated with a Master of Arts degree in English in 1967. In January, 1976, she was formally admitted to Loyola's Ph.D. program in English as a part-time student. She completed her doctoral course work in December, 1979. ~1s. Kumamoto is married and lives in Glenview, Illinois, with her husband, Steven Y. Kumamoto. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ii LIFE iii Chapter I. INTRODUCTION 1 II. INQUIRY INTO THE CONCEPT OF CEREMONY. 10 Historical Circumstances 10 Puritan Objection to Ceremony • 10 Anglican Defense of Ceremony 30 Ceremony and Drama 52 III. JOHN FORD AND CEREMONY 68 IV. THE LOVER'S MELANCHOLY 93 V. THE BROKEN HEART 141 VI. 'TIS PITY SHE'S A WHORE • 191 VII. LOVE'S SACRIFICE 241 VIII. PERKIN WARBECK • 295 IX. SOME CONCLUSIONS 350 BIBLIOGRAPHY 370 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Since the recovery of John Ford's works by the Victorians in the nineteenth century, the plays of Ford have been the center of considerable critical debate. A review of Ford criticism presents, however, a relationship similar to that which Whitehead remarked between Western philosophy and Plato: just as Western philosophy has been a series of footnotes to Plato, the criticism of Ford has long been a series of footnotes on the nature of Ford's morality. While Ford has become increasingly popular as one of the most widely read of English Renaissance drama- tists, his critics have focused their thoughts on his assumed moral cast, by labelling Ford by turns a "high priest of decadence," a traditional moralist, or a scien­ tific amoralist.l Some forty years ago, Joan Sargeaunt posed an impor- tant question which led to a now recognizably valid approach 1 For the history of Ford criticism, see the follow­ ing: Wallace A. Bacon, "The Literary Reputation of John Ford," Huntington Library Quarterly, 11 (1947-48): 181- 199; D. K. Anderson, John Ford (New York: Twayne Publish­ ers Inc., 1972), pp. 133-142; Joan Sargeaunt, John Ford (New York: Russell & Russell, 1966), pp. 167-187. 1 2 to Ford's plays. After surveying the critical disagree­ ments among the critics, she asked: 11 What has Apollo to do with Christ? 112 By posing this question, Sargeaunt pointed out the danger for any critic who chooses to dictate on moral grounds to Ford what subjects or modes of treatment he must undertake. More significantly her question was a warning against the separation between moral and aesthetic judgments -- a separation to which Ford's plays are partie- ularly susceptible. Recent Ford critics have heeded her counsel well. They have ceased to judge Ford's plays simply in terms of the characters' abnormal psychology, of dramat­ ically incredible situations, or to charge Ford with moral decadence and sensationalism. Instead, they have begun to concentrate on Ford's dramaturgy, so as to unify his ethical views and his artistic executions. In order to see Ford more clearly, they have begun to examine Ford within the Jacobean and Caroline ethos, and to explain the modes of dramatic expression appropriate to Ford's ideas and themes 2 Sargeaunt, p. 184. 3 in his plays.3 It is with Sargeaunt's query and the recent critical trend in mind that I shall investigate Ford's use of cere- mony in his five major plays: The Lover's Melancholy, The Broken Heart, 'Tis Pity She's a Whore, Love's Sacrifice and Perkin Warbeck. Some immediate critical benefits can be gained from applying ceremony to Ford's plays. First, this approach allows me to see Ford in relation to his own era. As my second chapter will show in detail, ceremony was a highly controversial subject in early seventeenth century England. The term was disputed by the people, simultane- ously drawing them into the religious, political and theat- rical areas. This historical fact corroborates my assump- tion about Ford's awareness of his social and intellectual environment, and particularly about his awareness of cere- mony as a formal pattern of drama. 3some critics who seek after Ford's dramatic art are: Russell Fraser, "Elizabethan Drama and the Art of Abstraction," Comparative Drama, 2 (1968): 73-82; James Howe, "Ford's The Lady's Trial: A Play of Metaphysical Wit," Genre, 7 (1974): 342-361; R. J. Kaufmann, "Ford's Tragic Perspective," Texas Studies in Literature and Language, 1 (1960): 522-537; B. Morris, "Introduction" to The Broken Heart (London: E. Benn, 1965), pp. xii-xxx; Michael Neill, 11 The Moral Artifice of The Lover's Melan­ choly," English Literary Renaissance, 8 (1978): 85-106; Jeanne A. Roberts, 11 John Ford's Passionate Abstractions," Southern Humanities Review, 7 (1973): 322-332. 4 Second, while the idea of ceremony enables me to place Ford in his time, it also enables me to shift from the examination of Ford's so-called morality that the old- line critics centered in decadence and sensationalism, to an effort to locate the formal centers of his dramaturgy. It has been recognized that ceremony is a useful term to describe part of Ford's plays. Critics such as Leech, Ornstein and Kirsch have referred to it in passing when describing those stylized gestures in 'Tis Pity She's a Whore or The Broken Heart. 4 Giovanni's appearance on cen- terstage with his sister's heart at the end of his dagger and Calantha's endurance of the news of the three deaths with silent dance are indeed ceremonialized, and these scenes are the most obvious instances worthy of note. What these critics have not pursued, however, it seems to me, is that in terms of Ford's dramaturgy, Giovanni's and Calan- tha's ceremonial postures are the crux of each play's mean- ing. These gestures of Giovanni and Calantha hold some of the keys which explain their inner natures and make impor- tant thematic statements. Instead of being merely empty spectacles and sensationalism of an extreme kind, their 4clifford Leech, John Ford (London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1964); Robert Ornstein, The Moral Vision of Jacobean Tragedy (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1960), pp. 200-221; A. c. Kirsch, Jacobean Dramatic Perspectives (Charlottesville: The University Press of Virginia, 1972), pp. 112-126. 5 stylized gestures finally draw up all the disparate elements of the plays 9 focus their ethical stances, and visualize, in an emblematically contracted way, the ultimate sense of paradox in the experiences of love and marriage. These thoughts about ceremony direct me to my third observation about ceremony in relation to Ford's dramaturgy, an observation that ceremonial actions are not limited to those examples which I have remarked. I propose that in Ford's plays, there are many more crucial ceremonial and ceremonial-like actions and moments which seem to deserve further investigation. While the examples of Giovanni and Calantha offer Fordian dramatic prototypes of ceremonial expression in human conduct, they also seem capable of yielding a clearer direction toward defining the kind of dramatic form that Ford might have had in mind. In the following chapters, I shall develop my cere­ monial approach to Ford in three steps.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Missions and Film Jamie S
    Missions and Film Jamie S. Scott e are all familiar with the phenomenon of the “Jesus” city children like the film’s abused New York newsboy, Little Wfilm, but various kinds of movies—some adapted from Joe. In Susan Rocks the Boat (1916; dir. Paul Powell) a society girl literature or life, some original in conception—have portrayed a discovers meaning in life after founding the Joan of Arc Mission, variety of Christian missions and missionaries. If “Jesus” films while a disgraced seminarian finds redemption serving in an give us different readings of the kerygmatic paradox of divine urban mission in The Waifs (1916; dir. Scott Sidney). New York’s incarnation, pictures about missions and missionaries explore the East Side mission anchors tales of betrayal and fidelity inTo Him entirely human question: Who is or is not the model Christian? That Hath (1918; dir. Oscar Apfel), and bankrolling a mission Silent movies featured various forms of evangelism, usually rekindles a wealthy couple’s weary marriage in Playthings of Pas- Protestant. The trope of evangelism continued in big-screen and sion (1919; dir. Wallace Worsley). Luckless lovers from different later made-for-television “talkies,” social strata find a fresh start together including musicals. Biographical at the End of the Trail mission in pictures and documentaries have Virtuous Sinners (1919; dir. Emmett depicted evangelists in feature films J. Flynn), and a Salvation Army mis- and television productions, and sion worker in New York’s Bowery recent years have seen the burgeon- district reconciles with the son of the ing of Christian cinema as a distinct wealthy businessman who stole her genre.
    [Show full text]
  • When James Ford and Jas Shaw Met at Manchester University in the Late 1990S, They Never Imagined They'd End up Creating a Human Synthesiser
    When James Ford and Jas Shaw met at Manchester University in the late 1990s, they never imagined they'd end up creating a human synthesiser. But in their very earliest musical experiments together, something was set in motion which would lead to one of the most unusual careers in British music: one which has seen their creative mission transform again and again, inventing entirely new formats for music-making along the way. So perhaps the weaving of rich layers of human vocal tonalities sung by The Deep Throat Choir into the techno framework of their fifth studio album Murmurations isn't quite such an unexpected turn of events. In fact, they've been connecting the human voice with electronic sound since they first founded the band Simian with Simon Lord and Alex McNaughten. Simian was, in Jas's words, about “trying to show you could make band music with songs and harmonies but be into Autechre too". Named after "Simeon", the home-made early synth rig of early electronic experimentalists The Silver Apples, the band combined Crosby, Stills & Nash harmonies with hypnotic Krautrock rhythms, cosmic analogue synthesiser swooshes and an unmistakeable clubber's sense of groove - and somehow in the middle of all that managed to find something extraordinarily accessible. They were signed to a major label subsidiary in 2000, and made two albums that stand up in their own right now. But, Jas continues, it was "just at the moment the world was into the Strokes and White Stripes and straight-ahead rock music," and their rich, baroque tapestries of song and sound didn't reach the audience their ambition and beauty deserved.
    [Show full text]
  • The Cultural and Ideological Significance of Representations of Boudica During the Reigns of Elizabeth I and James I
    EXETER UNIVERSITY AND UNIVERSITÉ D’ORLÉANS The Cultural and Ideological Significance Of Representations of Boudica During the reigns of Elizabeth I and James I. Submitted by Samantha FRENEE-HUTCHINS to the universities of Exeter and Orléans as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English, June 2009. This thesis is available for library use on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgment. I certify that all material in this thesis which is not my own work has been identified and that no material has previously been submitted and approved for the award of a degree by this or any other University. ..................................... (signature) 2 Abstract in English: This study follows the trail of Boudica from her rediscovery in Classical texts by the humanist scholars of the fifteenth century to her didactic and nationalist representations by Italian, English, Welsh and Scottish historians such as Polydore Virgil, Hector Boece, Humphrey Llwyd, Raphael Holinshed, John Stow, William Camden, John Speed and Edmund Bolton. In the literary domain her story was appropriated under Elizabeth I and James I by poets and playwrights who included James Aske, Edmund Spenser, Ben Jonson, William Shakespeare, A. Gent and John Fletcher. As a political, religious and military figure in the middle of the first century AD this Celtic and regional queen of Norfolk is placed at the beginning of British history. In a gesture of revenge and despair she had united a great number of British tribes and opposed the Roman Empire in a tragic effort to obtain liberty for her family and her people.
    [Show full text]
  • From Ben Jonson and Shakespeare (1921)
    Greenwood - Ben Jonson and Shakespeare 61 From Ben Jonson and Shakespeare (1921) Sir George Greenwood HE sheet anchor of the traditional belief with regard to the authorship of t he plays and poems of Shakespeare is undoubtedly Ben Jonson. It is to the Jonsonian utterances that the apostles of the Stratfordian faith always makeT their appeal. That faith we are told is based on the “irrefragable rock” of Ben Jonson’s testimony. Well, it was not so very long ago that we used to be told that the truth of a universal deluge and the preservation of mankind and animals of every kind and species, in Noah’s Ark, was established on the “impregnable rock” of Holy Scripture, and yet to-day we find even high Church digni taries—with whom Mr. J. M. Robertson would certainly be in entire agreement here—disavowing any belief in this interesting mythological tradition. Is it not, then, possible that the Jonsonian testi mony may prove no more “irrefragable” or “impregnable” than that of those old chronicles, which age-long tradition has ascribed to the authorship of “Moses”? As a distinguished writer, well-known both in the political and the literary world, has written to me, the difficulties in the way of the orthodox “Shakespearian” belief seem to be insuperable. Are the Jonsonian utterances of such weight as to outweigh them all? I reply, put Jonson in one scale and all the difficulties and improbabilities — if not impossibilities — of the “Stratfordian” hypothesis in the other, and old Ben will kick the beam. Now let us briefly consider this Jonsonian testimony.
    [Show full text]
  • The Senses in Early Modern England, 1558–1660
    The senses in early modern England, 1558–1660 Edited by Simon Smith, Jacqueline Watson, and Amy Kenny MANCHESTER 1824 Manchester University Press Simon Smith, Jackie Watson, and Amy Kenny - 9781526146465 www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.ukDownloaded from manchesterhive.com at 09/27/2021 05:33:41PM via free access The senses in early modern England, 1558–1660 Simon Smith, Jackie Watson, and Amy Kenny - 9781526146465 Downloaded from manchesterhive.com at 09/27/2021 05:33:41PM via free access MUP_Smith_Printer.indd 1 02/04/2015 16:18 Simon Smith, Jackie Watson, and Amy Kenny - 9781526146465 Downloaded from manchesterhive.com at 09/27/2021 05:33:41PM via free access MUP_Smith_Printer.indd 2 02/04/2015 16:18 The senses in early modern England, 1558–1660 edited by simon smith, jackie watson and amy kenny Manchester University Press Simon Smith, Jackie Watson, and Amy Kenny - 9781526146465 Downloaded from manchesterhive.com at 09/27/2021 05:33:41PM via free access MUP_Smith_Printer.indd 3 02/04/2015 16:18 Copyright © Manchester University Press 2015 While copyright in the volume as a whole is vested in Manchester University Press, copyright in individual chapters belongs to their respective authors, and no chapter may be reproduced wholly or in part without the express permission in writing of both author and publisher. Published by Manchester University Press Altrincham Street, Manchester M1 7JA www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data applied for isbn 978 07190 9158 2 hardback First published 2015 The publisher has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or any third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
    [Show full text]
  • Spartan Boys: John Ford and Philip Sidney
    Spartan boys : John Ford and Philip Sidney HOPKINS, Lisa <http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9512-0926> Available from Sheffield Hallam University Research Archive (SHURA) at: http://shura.shu.ac.uk/8829/ This document is the author deposited version. You are advised to consult the publisher's version if you wish to cite from it. Published version HOPKINS, Lisa (1997). Spartan boys : John Ford and Philip Sidney. Classical and Modern Literature, 17 (3), 217-229. Copyright and re-use policy See http://shura.shu.ac.uk/information.html Sheffield Hallam University Research Archive http://shura.shu.ac.uk Spartan Boys: John Ford and Philip Sidney In the Prologue to The Broken Heart, Ford begins by unequivocally placing his play within its geographical location: ‘Our scene is Sparta’ are the first words spoken on stage.1 He goes on first to define the play as a serious piece of work, and then to make an assertion which has aroused considerable speculation: What may be here thought a fiction, when time’s youth Wanted some riper years, was known a truth. (Prologue, ll.14-15) This has often been taken to refer to the real-life relationship between Penelope Rich, sister of the Earl of Essex and the ‘Stella’ of Astrophil and Stella, and Sir Philip Sidney.2 The story of Orgilus and Penthea certainly does have elements in common with that of Sidney and his Stella, while the names of Ford’s characters may well seem to echo those of Argalus and Parthenia, who feature in one of the numerous sub-plots of the new Arcadia, and ‘the general indebtedness of Ford’s play to Sidney’s Arcadia has been noticed’.3 But Ford’s Spartan setting is a stark counterpoint to Sidney’s lush one of Arcadia, though even it, in the second version of The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia, is under threat from insurrection in neighbouring Sparta.
    [Show full text]
  • Re-Reading John Ford's
    Re-Reading John Ford’s ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore, Re-Writing Tragedy: Margaret Cavendish’s The Unnatural Tragedy linda avril burnett Algoma University Dans cet article, l’ auteur développe et appuie la revendication d’ originalité de Margaret Cavendish. L’ auteur présente The Unnatural Tragedy (1662), une relec- ture de ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore (1633), comme faisant partie de la tradition des femmes écrivaines dans laquelle deux textes sont publiés dans un seul volume : le premier créatif et le deuxième critique. L’ analyse montre que la façon dont Cavendish utilise cette forme d’appropriation rend The Unnatural Tragedy plus proche de ce que nous nommons une parodie, que de l’imitation propre à la Ren- aissance. L’ auteur montre également que la pièce de Cavendish porte deux voix : une première critique et une deuxième qui rend hommage à la pièce de Ford. The Unnatural Tragedy de Cavendish traite de l’association que Ford fait entre le discours féminin et la transgression sexuelle dans ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore (1633). Simultanément, la pièce de Cavendish est un hommage à la tentative de Ford de remettre en question l’idéologie d’un genre dans lequel les notions d’amour roman- tique et d’honneur masculin sont privilégiées. Dans sa pièce, Cavendish retra- vaille celle de Ford afin de déstabiliser à la fois la tragédie et ce qu’ elle représente dans la société patriarcale de Cavendish, et ce faisant, s’adresse simultanément à Aristote et Ford. Silence is the adornment of women. Sophocles said so, and Aristotle repeated it.
    [Show full text]
  • Duchess of Malfi, the White Devil, the Broken Heart and Tis Pity Shes a Whore Pdf, Epub, Ebook
    DUCHESS OF MALFI, THE WHITE DEVIL, THE BROKEN HEART AND TIS PITY SHES A WHORE PDF, EPUB, EBOOK Revd Prof. John Webster,John Ford,Jane Kingsley-Smith | 640 pages | 29 Sep 2015 | Penguin Books Ltd | 9780141392233 | English | London, United Kingdom Duchess of Malfi, the White Devil, the Broken Heart and Tis Pity Shes a Whore PDF Book And we should be thankful to Ben Jonson for writing poetry such as this. Add to cart. In The Broken Heart , John Ford questions the value of emotional repression as his characters attempt to subdue their desires and hatreds in ancient Greece. Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad. Together with the Penguin volume of Five Revenge Tragedies , edited by Emma Smith, this is the essential sourcebook for drama in the period. Are you happy to accept all cookies? Essential We use cookies to provide our services , for example, to keep track of items stored in your shopping basket, prevent fraudulent activity, improve the security of our services, keep track of your specific preferences e. Bookishjq rated it it was amazing Jun 01, Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons. Cancel Submit. Sign in to Purchase Instantly. Learn about new offers and get more deals by joining our newsletter. Discourses and Selected Writings Epictetus. Your subscription to Read More was successful. Product Details About the Author. Mikhail Bulgakov. Tragedies, vol. How was your experience with this page? You can learn more about how we plus approved third parties use cookies and how to change your settings by visiting the Cookies notice. These four plays, written during the reigns of James I and Charles I, took revenge tragedy in dark and ambiguous new directions.
    [Show full text]
  • Contribution of Ben Jonson to Development of the English Renaissance Comedy
    УДК: 821.111.09-22 Џонсон Б. ИД: 195292940 Оригинални научни рад ДОЦ. ДР СЛОБОДАН Д. ЈОВАНОВИЋ1 Факултет за правне и пословне студије „др Лазар Вркатић” Катедра за англистику, Нови Сад CONTRIBUTION OF BEN JONSON TO DEVELOPMENT OF THE ENGLISH RENAISSANCE COMEDY Abstract. Ben Jonson’s Works, published in 1616, included all his comedies written that far, and meant an important precedent which helped to establish drama as lit- erary kind comparable to the rest of literature. Before that date, drama was regarded as un- worthy of the name of literature, and Jonson was the first to give it its new dignity. His comedies written after 1616 were usually published immediately after they were acted. Jonson’s theoretical interests were an expression of his intellectual aristocratism and his realistic temperament. He took pride in being able to create comedies according to the best scientific rules, and felt superior to those who made them by sheer talent. Jonson was the only theoretician among the English Renaissance dramatists, but although he was ready to fight for his rules, his application of them was broad and elastic. In his comedies there are many departures from classical models, often modified by his keen observation of every- day English life. The theory he adhered to was an abstract and rigid kind of realism, which in his practice was transformed by his gift of observation and his moral zeal into a truly realistic and satirical comic vision of life. Key words: comedy, drama, theory, classical models, everyday English life, realism, satire. 1 [email protected] 348 Зборник радова Филозофског факултета XLII (1)/2012 EXCEPTIONAL PERSONALITY, OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION Benjamin or Ben Jonson (1573?-1637) was the central literary personality of the first two decades of the XVII century.
    [Show full text]
  • Sejanus, the King's Men Altar Scenes, and the Theatrical Production Of
    2952 Early Theatre 20.2 (2017), 77–98 http://dx.doi.org/10.12745/et.20.2.2952 John Kuhn Sejanus, the King’s Men Altar Scenes, and the Theatrical Production of Paganism This article traces the lineage of the popular performance set-piece of the ‘oracular altar scene’ from its inception in Jonson’s Sejanus through its frequent reuse by the King’s Men and their imitators later in the century. By doing so, it demonstrates how material practices of reuse in the seventeenth-century theatre helped shape the produc- tion of popular knowledge about the nature of ‘pagan’ ritual and its practitioners in the Stuart era of intensified antiquarian discovery and colonial expansion. The fifth act of Ben Jonson’s Sejanus, a Jacobean tragedy set in decadent imper- ial Rome, contains a striking moment of intersection between antiquarianism and performance, as the play’s scheming, eponymous favourite agrees to propiti- ate a statue of the goddess Fortuna, grudgingly seeking divine advice about his political fortunes. Accompanied by the music of flutes and trumpets, a priest incants lines translated from Seneca while performing complex rituals of lustra- tion (washing his hands), libation (eating and administering honey and milk to the participants), and propitiation (placing milk, honey, and burning poppy on the altar bearing Fortuna’s statue), all as Sejanus looks on. Surprisingly, these distinctly alien, non-Christian religious rites produce true future knowledge: the hitherto sessile statue of the goddess (probably a company member in a statue costume) miraculously becomes animated and turns her face away. The predic- tion implied by this silent rejection — that Sejanus has lost her favour and his luck has run out — is quickly vindicated for the audience in the next scene, when the favourite’s downfall begins.
    [Show full text]
  • 2019 Seminar Abstracts: the King's Men and Their Playwrights
    1 2019 Seminar Abstracts: The King’s Men and Their Playwrights Meghan C. Andrews, Lycoming College James J. Marino, Cleveland State University “Astonishing Presence”: Writing for a Boy Actress of the King’s Men, c. 1610-1616 Roberta Barker, Dalhousie University Although scholarship has acknowledged the influence of leading actors such as Richard Burbage on the plays created for the King’s Men, less attention has been paid to the ways in which the gifts and limitations of individual boy actors may have affected the company’s playwrights. Thanks to the work of scholars such as David Kathman and Martin Wiggins, however, it is now more feasible than ever to identify the periods during which specific boys served their apprenticeships with the company and the plays in which they likely performed. Building on that scholarship, my paper will focus on the repertoire of Richard Robinson (c.1597-1648) during his reign as one of the King’s Men’s leading actors of female roles. Surviving evidence shows that Robinson played the Lady in Middleton’s Second Maiden’s Tragedy in 1611 and that he appeared in Jonson’s Catiline (1611) and Fletcher’s Bonduca (c.1612-14). Using a methodology first envisioned in 1699, when one of the interlocutors in James Wright’s Historia Histrionica dreamt of reconstructing the acting of pre-Civil War London by “gues[sing] at the action of the Men, by the Parts which we now read in the Old Plays” (3), I work from this evidence to suggest that Robinson excelled in the roles of nobly born, defiant tragic heroines: women of “astonishing presence,” as Helvetius says of the Lady in The Second Maiden’s Tragedy (2.1.74).
    [Show full text]
  • Edmund Spenser and Elizabethan Portraiture Author(S): Tarnya Cooper and Andrew Hadfield Source: Renaissance Studies, Vol
    Edmund Spenser and Elizabethan portraiture Author(s): Tarnya Cooper and Andrew Hadfield Source: Renaissance Studies, Vol. 27, No. 3 (JUNE 2013), pp. 407-434 Published by: Wiley Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/24420119 Accessed: 09-04-2019 14:13 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at https://about.jstor.org/terms Wiley is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Renaissance Studies This content downloaded from 117.240.50.232 on Tue, 09 Apr 2019 14:13:08 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Renaissance Studies Vol. 27 No. 3 DOI: 10.1111/j.l477-4658.2012.00819.x Edmund Spenser and Elizabethan portraiture Tarnya Cooper and Andrew Hadfield Edmund Spenser (1554P-99), although his work is largely the preserve of specialists today, is a recognizable figure from the realms of English Literature from the mid-seventeenth century onwards. He is invariably depicted as a man with a ruff and a neatly clipped beard and, if shown in fuller profile, wearing the doublet and tights that were thought to have been de rigeurat Elizabeth's court. There is no particular distinction between the images produced for a scholarly audience and a more popular one.
    [Show full text]