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Affect, Audience and Genre: Reading the Connection between the Restoration Playhouse and the Secret History by Erin M. Keating M.A., Concordia University, 2006 B.A., Wilfrid Laurier University, 1998 THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in the Department of English Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences © Erin M. Keating 2012 Simon Fraser University Spring 2012 All rights reserved. However, in accordance with the Copyright Act of Canada, this work may be reproduced, without authorization, under the conditions for "Fair Dealing." Therefore, limited reproduction of this work for the purposes of private study, research, criticism, review and news reporting is likely to be in accordance with the law, particularly if cited appropriately. APPROVAL Name: Erin Keating Degree: Doctor of Philosophy Title of Thesis: Affect, Audience and Genre: Reading the Connection between the Restoration Playhouse and the Secret History Examining Committee: __________________________________________ Dr. Carolyn Lesjak Graduate Chair and Associate Professor of English __________________________________________ Dr. Betty Schellenberg Senior Supervisor Professor of English __________________________________________ Dr. Diana Solomon 2nd Reader Assistant Professor of English __________________________________________ Dr. Peter Dickinson 3rd Reader Professor of English __________________________________________ Dr. Lisa Shapiro Internal Examiner Chair and Associate Professor of Philosophy __________________________________________ Dr. Laura J. Rosenthal External Examiner Professor of English University of Maryland Date Defended/Approved: __________________________________________ ii Partial Copyright Licence ABSTRACT Bringing together two understudied and underappreciated Restoration literary genres—pathetic tragedy and secret history—I argue for a realignment of genre through reception practices and affect. Traditional attempts to reconcile Restoration tragedy and secret history within broader generic traditions (of tragedy and of the novel respectively) have led to a devaluation of many of these complex texts. By considering the socially oriented reception practices associated with these genres, I argue that, for contemporary readers and audiences, they would have been more closely associated to each other than with a generic tradition. The affective element of social reception further reveals an ideological complexity within the texts, specifically surrounding notions of female virtue and political subjecthood. Authors treated in some length include Delarivier Manley, Thomas Otway, Nicholas Brady and Elkanah Settle. Other texts examined include Gabriel de Brémond’s Hattige and the anonymous texts The Player’s Tragedy and The Perplex’d Prince. Keywords: Restoration tragedy; secret history; rehearsal plays; affect; Delarivier Manley; Restoration audiences iii DEDICATION To Sean—my hilarious husband, a man of infinite patience. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS In the six years spent on this project, many people have contributed to its success. I want to thank my supervisor, Betty Schellenberg, for her support and encouragement, for her ability to discern what I was trying to say sometimes before I did and for knowing when I needed space to work out my ideas and when to send me subtle reminders when working out ideas was in danger of continuing indefinitely. Her careful editing (and attention to the finer points of comma usage) helpfully reined in my occasionally unruly prose. I also want to acknowledge Diana Solomon for taking me on in her first year at Simon Fraser and for being my much-needed Restoration theatre expert. Many members of the English Department at Simon Fraser made this daunting project an easier and, at times, even pleasurable experience. My fellow students, especially Sarah Bull, Jennifer Scott and Sarah Creel, provided feedback at various stages of my work and provided a supportive community. Essential elements of this project were drawn from professors not on my committee. I’m indebted to Jeff Derksen for introducing me to affect theory, James Fleming for fostering my interest in early modern notions of virtue and Peter Dickinson for his spot on reading suggestions and meticulous commentary. Finally I’d like to thank my committee members Lisa Shapiro and Laura Rosenthal for their valuable feedback and suggestions regarding my finished project. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Approval...................................................................................................................... ii Abstract....................................................................................................................... iii Dedication...................................................................................................................iv Acknowledgements.....................................................................................................v Table of Contents .......................................................................................................vi Introduction ................................................................................................................. 1 Structures of affect/affective structures: Tomkins, Brennan, Ngai...................... 4 “til you in that fatal hour inform’d me I was a Lover”.......................................... 8 The social spaces of Restoration literature............................................................ 11 Chapter 1: Envious Productions: Actresses, Audiences and Affect in the Restoration Playhouse .............................................................................................. 18 Envy as affect .......................................................................................................... 24 Otway’s orphan: A model heroine and a model play ......................................... 28 The Rape: Furthering the critical model................................................................. 35 Masculine virtue as inalienable ............................................................................. 38 Envy takes the stage ............................................................................................... 45 Affect in the playhouse........................................................................................... 54 Chapter 2: Social Reading Practices: Reading the Bodies Behind the Stage and the Page..................................................................................................... 59 The socially oriented reader................................................................................... 59 The long shadow of the novel reader.................................................................... 64 The secret histories of the stage............................................................................. 71 Staging the rivalry between the playhouses..................................................... 73 “A jest in scorn” or shamming on the stage...................................................... 81 A secret history about the stage............................................................................. 95 The actress: the character, the person, the reputation...................................... 96 Virtue in distress: from stage to page.............................................................. 101 Chapter 3: The Restoration’s “Ugly Feeling”: The Power of Spite in the Secret History........................................................................................................... 108 Secret history as an “ugly” genre ........................................................................ 111 Spite as affect..................................................................................................... 111 Non-closure ....................................................................................................... 113 vi The constructed object of spite......................................................................... 117 The reading community’s role in facilitating spite: the authoritative reader and intimacy.......................................................................... 118 Faction in feeling............................................................................................... 125 A reigning king as romance hero ........................................................................ 128 Charles II: A king “but just as others are” ...................................................... 133 Satire within romance....................................................................................... 145 Romance versus satire: a case study in affect ................................................. 149 Coda: spite and the fickleness of favour............................................................. 153 Chapter 4: The Secret Author: Delarivier Manley’s Amatory Secret History; or, Interrogating Models of Female Virtue........................................... 159 Spite: The receptive power of “all sorts of people” ........................................... 160 Interrogating the virtuous female exemplar; or, envy interrupted .................. 163 The perils of over-education; or, the paradox within narratives of virtue and desire ............................................................................... 168 Justice’s ideological blinders; or, Astrea as a bad reader............................... 181 “Where in this bad world shall I find a protection for my unwary