Western Michigan University ScholarWorks at WMU

Late Tudor and Stuart Drama Medieval Institute Publications

5-2021

Thomas Middleton and the Plural Politics of Jacobean Drama

Mark Kaethler Medicine Hat College, [email protected]

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Recommended Citation Kaethler, Mark, "Thomas Middleton and the Plural Politics of Jacobean Drama" (2021). Late Tudor and Stuart Drama. 7. https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/mip_ltsd/7

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Mark Kaethler Thomas Middleton and the Plural Politics of Jacobean Drama Late Tudor and Stuart Drama

Gender, Performance, and Material Culture

Series Editors: Cristina León Alfar (Hunter College, CUNY, USA) Helen Ostovich (McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada) Mark Kaethler Thomas Middleton and the Plural Politics of Jacobean Drama ISBN 978-1-5015-1819-5 e-ISBN (PDF) 978-1-5015-1376-3 e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-1-5015-1399-2

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021932134

Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de.

© 2021 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston Cover image: GG 686 workshop, Peter Paul Rubens: Alboin und Rosamunde, © KHM-Museumsverband Typesetting: Integra Software Services Pvt. Ltd. Printing and binding: CPI books GmbH, Leck www.degruyter.com Contents

Acknowledgments VII

Illustrations XIII

Introduction: Thomas Middleton’s Plural Politics 1 Plural Politics and Poiesis 1 Middleton’s Political Theology 5 Challenging James’s Image as Sovereign 14 Middleton’s Political/Poetical Style and Influences 19 Patriarchy and Middleton 32 From Opera Basilica to Political Awareness, from Parrhēsia to Xenophobia 37

Chapter 1 “He that knows how to obey, knows how to reign”: James as The Phoenix 43 Introduction 43 From Tudor Ashes and Parrhēsia’s Flame 45 Fluid Sovereignty; or, the Boy Actor and the Phoenix 54 Teaching the Monarch to Act 60 Middleton’s Contractual Theater 69 Conclusion: Disguised James 71

Chapter 2 “And in all times, may this day ever prove / A day of triumph, joy and honest love”? The Witch and the Overbury Trials 73 Introduction 73 Middleton’s Earlier Satires of Howard, Essex, and Carr 76 Witches, Aristocrats, and Tragicomedy 82 Blackfriars and the Theatricality of Injustice 90 Providential Theater or the Satire of Containment 98 The Changeling; or, Howard Six Years Later 102

Chapter 3 “Two ways at once”: The World Tossed at Tennis and the Thirty Years War 111 Introduction 111 Middleton’s Political Irony 114 XII Contents

War, Peace, White Supremacy, and Middleton, 1616–1620 120 The World Tossed at Tennis as Intended Performance 130 The World Tossed at Tennis Performed 136 Collaborative Governance and Political Awareness 145 Conclusion 151

Chapter 4 “If this be virtue’s path, ’tis a strange one”: A Game at Chess’s Competing Histories 153 Introduction 153 Conflicted Charles and Bad Buckingham 156 Jacobean Janus 159 Allegory in Pieces: Royalty and Pawns 163 Satirizing Aristocracy 166 Unpredictable Providential Morality 176 “She that knows sin, knows best how to hate sin.” 180 “Dissembler! – that includes all” 187 Conclusion: Still Binary 189

Conclusion: “Use but your royal hand” 193

Works Cited 199

Index 219