Kemp and Elizabethan Popular Culture
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EÖTVÖS LÓRÁND TUDOMÁNYEGYETEM BÖLCSÉSZETTUDOMÁNYI KAR Doktori disszertáció N. Streitman Krisztina William Kemp: A Comic Star in Shakespeare’s England Történettudományi Doktori Iskola Dr. Székely Gábor MTA doktora, egyetemi tanár Középkori és Koraújkori Egyetemes Történeti Doktori Program Dr. Poór János MTA doktora, egyetemi tanár A bizottság tagjai: Dr. Sz. Jónás Ilona MTA doktora, Dr. Géher István CSc, professor emeritus professor emeritus Dr. Szőnyi György Endre, MTA doktora, egyetemi tanár Dr. Velich Andrea Ph.D, docens Dr. Nagy Balázs Ph.D, docens Dr. Sebők Marcell Ph.D, adjunktus Dr. Novák Veronika Ph.D, adjunktus Témavezető: Dr. Klaniczay Gábor MTA doktora, egyetemi tanár BUDAPEST, 2011 Acknowledgments I owe special thanks to many people who encouraged me and contributed to the success of this dissertation. I am grateful to Professor Gábor Klaniczay for his professional and personal care. His guidance, suggestions and constructive criticism have proven invaluable even as his support, encouragement and feedback have been fundamental to my work. He continues to inspire me and many others in the fields of Medieval and Early Modern cultural history. I am also deeply indebted to Professor Peter Burke who responded meticulously and instantly to all my queries, especially those concerning Early Modern popular culture and Renaissance cultural history. It was he who called my attention to Anu Korhonen‘s work which in turn shaped my understanding of a number of difficult aspects of folly. I owe a debt of gratitude to Andrea Velich who offered orientation in my research and pointed out important primary and secondary sources and their availability in London libraries. I am also thankful to Balázs Nagy for his goodwill, professional and technical guidance. I must render thanks to Emese Lafferton whose friendly encouragement, good- natured comments and criticism of the Conclusion helped clarify several concepts concerning the situation of madmen in the Renaissance and Michel Foucault‘s theory of confinement, thereby elevating the quality of my writing. I acknowledge Natália Pikli, Éva Petrőczi, Erzsébet Stróbl, Ágnes Juhász, Ágnes Matuska and Éva Eszter Szabó for their professional interest and friendly support; they were always willing to listen, sparing neither time nor energy. I am grateful to have had the assisstance of Noémi Najbauer who has been my precise, conscientious and faithful reader even on hot summer days. I thank Zsófia Szalay for help with the footnotes and the format of the dissertation. I acknowledge Andrea Székely for good cheer and her hospitality enabling me to perform research in London. I am also thankful to my colleagues at the Budapest Business School, at the Faculty of International Management and Business Studies for the opportunity to devote more time to my study during the 2010/2011 terms. I would like to express my gratitude to my sister-in-law for patient care of my children in the summers, to my parents who instilled in me the love of learning and to my sister, who was always a faithful fellow-in-arms during the most challenging times. Last, but certainly not least, I wish to thank those who are the closest to me: my children Andris and Dóri for their patience and my husband Péter for understanding me 2 and investing in me. Péter, I could have never written this dissertation without the trips to London you so generously sponsored and the treasury of books and copied materials I obtained while there. Thank you for the help in looking after the children, for encouraging me and believing in me more than I ever would. 3 Table of Contents PREFACE ......................................................................................................................................................... 6 I. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................... 7 1. MA THESIS ............................................................................................................................................ 7 2. AIMS, SOURCES AND PROBLEMS ................................................................................................... 16 Sources ................................................................................................................................................ 20 Problems .............................................................................................................................................. 25 3. A SHORT BIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM KEMP .................................................................................... 26 II. FOOLERY AND THEATRICAL WARS .......................................................................................... 40 1. WILLIAM KEMP AND FOOLERY ........................................................................................................ 40 The Christian Concept of Folly ....................................................................................................... 40 Erasmus and Brant ............................................................................................................................. 43 2. THE VARIETY AND SITUATION OF FOOLS .................................................................................. 48 Court Jesters ..................................................................................................................................... 48 Festival Fools ...................................................................................................................................... 52 The Actor Fools ................................................................................................................................. 59 The Legal and Social Control of the Actors ................................................................................ 67 3. ATTACKS AGAINST THE THEATRE ................................................................................................ 72 The Reasons for the Attacks ......................................................................................................... 74 The Enemies of the Stage ............................................................................................................... 75 The Central Role of the Fool in the Theatrical Debates .......................................................... 83 Defenders ............................................................................................................................................ 85 III. KEMP AND ELIZABETHAN POPULAR CULTURE ................................................................... 90 1. THEORIES OF POPULAR CULTURE ................................................................................................... 90 2. CLOTHING-BODY-DANCE ............................................................................................................... 100 Nine Daies Wonder ......................................................................................................................... 101 The Tollet Window .......................................................................................................................... 105 Main Figures ...................................................................................................................................... 107 Comic Fellows .................................................................................................................................... 117 Nakedness ......................................................................................................................................... 120 Colours ................................................................................................................................................ 124 Green, Wild Man .............................................................................................................................. 125 Will Somer ......................................................................................................................................... 130 Green Kendal and Motley ............................................................................................................... 132 Accessories ....................................................................................................................................... 134 3. KEMP AS FALSTAFF: THE COMIC AND GROTESQUE BODY ..................................................... 136 4. KEMP, THE MASTER OF THE STAGE JIG ..................................................................................... 150 The Jig ............................................................................................................................................... 151 Tarlton’s and Kemp’s Jigs ............................................................................................................... 155 IV. NINE DAIES WONDER – THE GREAT CHALLENGE .......................................................... 162 1. KEMP IN THE SHAKESPEAREAN COMPANY ................................................................................. 162 Structure ........................................................................................................................................... 162 Place of Residence ........................................................................................................................... 165 Income ...............................................................................................................................................