Theatre and Magic in the Elizabethan Renaissance
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Freie Universität Berlin Fachbereich Philosophie und Geisteswissenschaften II Institut für Philosophie Theatre and Magic in the Elizabethan Renaissance Gabriela Dragnea Horvath Erscheinungsjahr: 2012 GUTACHTER-LISTE Gutachter 1 Prof. Dr. Wilhelm Schmidt-Biggemann Gutachter 2 Prof. Dr. Anne Eusterschulte Datum der letzten mündlichen Prüfung (Disputationsdatum): 23.07.2010 2 CONTENTS Acknowledgements 6 List of Figures 8 1. INTRODUCTION 9 1.1 Motivation of the Conceptual Choice 9 1.2 Semantic Survey: Magic 10 1.3 Semantic Survey: Theatre 12 1.4 Circumscribing the Study Area 14 1.5 The Elizabethan Renaissance 18 1.6 Dr. Dee and Sir Edward Kelly 19 1.7 The State of Art 23 1.8 Interdisciplinarity and Method 25 1.9 Note 29 1.10 Abbreviations 30 2. HISTORICAL PREMISES 31 2.1 Theatre 31 2.1.1 The Medieval Tradition 31 2.1.2 The Italian Models 35 2.1.3 National Comedy and Tragedy 38 2.1.4 Stable Theatres, Playwrights, Actors and the Crown 40 2.1.5 Drama and Elizabethan Life 43 2.2 Magic 45 2.2.1 Magical Practices and Religion 45 2.2.2 Renaissance Magic and Reformation 48 2.2.3 English Contributions 50 2.2.4 The Sovereign Magician 54 2.2.5 James I and Black Magic 55 2.2.6 The Discoverie of Witchcraft 57 2.2.7 Magical Agencies 59 2.2.8 The Popularity of Magic 59 2.2.9 Magic and Literature 61 3. THEORETICAL PREMISES 63 3.1 Difficulties of Approach 63 3.2 Theatre. Conceptual Analysis 64 3.2.1 Aristotelian Mimesis in Shakespeare 65 3.2.2 Nature in Shakespeare 67 3.2.3 Nature, Art and Platonism 70 3.2.4 The World as Theatre. The Theatre as World 75 3.3 Magic. Conceptual Analysis 77 3.3.1 Ancient Sources 77 3.3.2 Tentative Definition 81 3 3.3.3 Magic and Religion 83 3.3.4 Philosophia perennis and Magic 84 3.3.5 Dee and Perennial Philosophy 87 3.4 Common Features of Theatre and Magic 93 4. WONDER IN THEATRE AND MAGIC 97 4.1 The Sense of Wonder 97 4.2 The Marvelous in Theatre 100 4.2.1 Shakespeare on Miracles 101 4.2.2 Shakespeare on Wonder 106 4.2.3 Wonder in Macbeth 107 4.2.4 Wonder in A Midsummer Night's Dream 111 4.2.5 Theatre and Magic in The Tempest 113 4.2.6 Wonder and Amazement in The Tempest 118 4.2.6.1 Wonder, Worship and the Advancement of Learning 118 4.2.6.2 The Monster in the Labyrinth 122 4.2.6.3 The Nobler Reason 126 4.3. Dr. Dee as Wonder Master 129 4.3.1 Monas Hieroglyphica as Instrument of Wonder 129 4.3.2 Interpretations of the Monas Hieroglyphica 134 4.3.3 Angels and Wonders 139 4.3.4 Mysteries 143 4.3.5 Magic and Theatre in the Five Books of Mystery 146 4.4. Continuum and Becoming 151 4.5. Man is the Measure of All Things 153 4.5.1 What a Piece of Work is Man! 153 4.5.2 And Yet to Me What is This Quintessence of Dust? 156 4.6 The Charmed Magician 160 4.7 Good Old Lord Gonzalo 167 5. THE POWER OF WORDS 173 5.1 Word Dynamis 173 5.2 Renaissance, Reformation and Languages of Power 175 5.3 Shakespeare, Dee and Professional Idioms 180 5.3.1 The Transmission of Enochian 184 5.3.2 Quiddities, Names and Paradoxes in Enochian 190 5.3.3 Names and Magical Operations 194 5.3.4 Names in Shakespeare's Magic 199 5.3.5 Naming in Theatre 202 5.3.6 Paradoxes of Language in the Theatre of the World 205 5.3.7. What's in a Name? 209 5.3.8 The Name of King, Man and the Name of Macbeth 215 5.4 Dr. Dee on Name and Fame 219 5.5. Words and Intellectus Intentus 221 5.6 Transcending Language 223 4 5.7 Creation and Command in Theatre and Magic 226 5.7.1. Analogical Thought and Emotions 228 5.7.2. Ludicium in the Language Lab 233 6. THE TEMPTATION OF THE POSSIBLE: VISION AND SPIRITS 241 6.1 Visual Turbulence 241 6.2 Vis imaginativa 247 6.2.1 Such tricks hath strong imagination 250 6.3. Spiritual Beings 255 6.3.1 Semantic Turbulence 260 6.3.2. Spirits and Goals 264 6.3.3 Good and Bad Spirits 266 6.3.4 Angelus Tuae Professionis 269 6.3.5 These our actors ...were all spirits 271 6.3.6 Angels, Spirits and Nature 276 6.3.7 Spirits and the Mind 284 6.3.8. Spirits and Culture 286 7. CONCLUSIONS 294 7.1 Limits and Praises of Interdisciplinarity 294 7.2 Theatre and Magic as Arts of Becoming 297 7.3 Dr. John Dee 302 7.4 Sir Edward Kelly 304 7.4.1 The Question of Authorship 305 7. 5 Dee and Shakespeare 306 8. FIGURES 314 9. APPENDIXES 328 10. BIBLIOGRAPHY 333 11. INDEX 353 12. ABSTRACT – DEUTSCHER SPRACHE 354 13. CURRICULUM VITAE 362 5 Acknowledgements In fulfilling this doctoral project I have had institutional and personal support I wish to mention and express my gratitude for. My first thanks go to the Institut für Philosophie of the Freie Universität Berlin for accepting my dissertation topic to be treated in English and in a doctoral formula that allowed me to continue my work and my family life in Florence. I am deeply grateful to Prof. Dr. Wilhelm Schmidt-Biggemann for his encouragement and patient guiding. His publications, in particular Philosophia perennis, have been of invaluable help in orienting my research on the philosophical context of Shakespeare and John Dee. My gratitude goes no less to Prof. Dr. Anne Eusterschulte for her comprehensive analysis of my thesis, her criticism and her generous appreciation of its original aspects. I am indebted to Prof. Dr. Andrew James Johnston for suggestions regarding the general framework and the critical perspective. Special thanks to The Oxford University Press for sending me a free copy of Shakespeare's Complete Works many years ago, when I lived in Bucharest. This book has accompanied me everywhere in my wanderings and has remained the reference edition in my studies. The present research has been carried out attending various libraries. My gratitude to the staff of the Freie Universität Berlin Library, the Bodleian Library in Oxford, the Berenson Library at the Villa I Tatti, the Harold Acton Library of the British Institute in Florence, the Biblioteca Nazionale in Florence. Particular mention of the librarians April Child (Harold Acton), Una Hanratty (Gonzaga in Florence), Teresa Mena (Richmond Study Center in Florence), Elena Paolucci (Florence University of the Arts) for keeping me updated with new prints and kindly extending my loan periods. I am also indebted to colleagues and scholars for advice and support, in particular to Prof. Dr. Patrick Burke, Dean of Gonzaga in Florence for inviting me to participate in philosophy conferences where I could advance and submit to critical judgement some of the ideas debated in this work. The group Theater without Borders, whose conference at New York University in Florence I attended in May 2009, has contributed to refine my conclusions on theatre. I am indebted to all the participants and in particular to Susan Wofford, Dean of the NYU Gallatin School, Richard Andrews, M.A. Katrizky and Eric Nicholson. I had the privilege to meet some of the authors of books that have contributed to my research and benefit directly from their expertise: Carlo Ginzburg, James Hankins, Stephen Orgel, Michael Wyatt. Fr. Michael Moynahan, S.J., has kindly provided me with bibliography on the educational value of theatre at the English College in Rome. My research depends on ideas and suggestions I have received in many years. Mark Roberts m.Oxon, librarian at the Harold Acton Library in Florence and a dear friend, mentioned Dr. Dee to me for the first time years back and recommended bibliography on his work. Prof. Dr. Mihaela Irimia was my advisor in Bucharest in a research on ludic aspects of English poetry. 6 Very special thanks to Dr. Alfred Levy and Irmgard Fuchs-Levy for their friendly support and precious exchange of ideas. I could find peace to write, away from daily cares in the welcoming seaside flat of my friends Daniela Sachi and Luciano Capiali, who affectionaly sustained my work together with Hulda Liberanome, Barbara Cinelli, Franca Celli, Simona Mocali. A thought of deep gratitude in memoriam for my mother Maria and my father Gheorghe. I owe enormously to my husband Ladislau and my sons Petru and Anton who have supported me in any possible way and lovingly accompanied my efforts. 7 List of Figures 1. John Dee, Monas Hieroglyphica, Front Page of the 1564 edition 2. Monas, Theorem II 3. Monas Hieroglyphica 4. Monas, Theorem X 5. Monas, Cosmic Egg. Theorem XVIII 6. Monas, Metamorphosis of the Egg 7. Monas, Canon of Transposition, Theorem XXIII 8. Enochian Alphabet 9. Table with the Names of God 10. Sigillum Aemeth 11. Dee's coat of arms 12. Samples of Enochian 13. Possible alchemical tables 14. Seals of the Princes Heptarchicall Figures 1-7 : Material excerpted from the book THE HIEROGLYPHIC MONAD © 1975 by Samuel Weiser, Inc Red Wheel/Weiser, LLC Newburyport, MA and San Francisco, CA www.redwheelweiseer.com Figures 8-10; 12-14 : Material excerpted from the book JOHN DEE’S FIVE BOOKS OF MYSTERY © 2003 Joseph H.