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Performance, Professionalization, and the Early Modern English Schoolmaster Michael Andrew Albright Lehigh University, Maa206@Lehigh.Edu Lehigh University Lehigh Preserve Theses and Dissertations 1-1-2013 You're a teacher because you say you are: Performance, Professionalization, and the Early Modern English Schoolmaster Michael Andrew Albright Lehigh University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://preserve.lehigh.edu/etd Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Albright, Michael Andrew, "You're a teacher because you say you are: Performance, Professionalization, and the Early Modern English Schoolmaster" (2013). Theses and Dissertations. 4263. https://preserve.lehigh.edu/etd/4263 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by Lehigh Preserve. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Lehigh Preserve. For more information, please contact [email protected]. “You’re a teacher because you say you are”: Performance, Professionalization, and the Early Modern English Schoolmaster by Michael Andrew Albright A Dissertation Presented to the Graduate and Research Committee of Lehigh University in Candidacy for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English Lehigh University May 20, 2013 © 2013 Copyright Michael A. Albright ii Approved and recommended for acceptance as a dissertation in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Michael A. Albright “You’re a teacher because you say you are”: Performance, Professionalization, and the Early Modern English Schoolmaster Dr. Barbara H. Traister Dissertation Director Approved Date Committee Members: Dr. Scott Paul Gordon Dr. Jenna Lay Dr. Edward Shapiro iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Without the unwavering support of my family, friends, and professors, this project would not have come to fruition. The past seven years at Lehigh University have been rewarding—personally and professionally. However, it would be remiss of me if I did not take the time to acknowledge those professors at Millersville University who encouraged me to continue with my education at the graduate level. In particular, I am indebted to Dr. Robert Carballo, who served as my advisor and staunchly supported every step of my career, and Dr. M.P.A. Sheaffer, whose wisdom and scholarly authority inspire me to this day. These individuals allowed me to see the value in my work, and, to them, I owe my gratitude. I have profited immensely from my time at Lehigh as a graduate student in Drown Hall. The Department’s generous support allowed me to pursue my master’s and doctoral degrees, while being afforded with the opportunity to teach—one of the main reasons I found myself attracted to graduate school. I am thankful to have experienced stimulating seminars with a range of professors from within and outside my field of study, including Dr. Elizabeth Fifer, who encouraged me to attend my first conference, and Dr. Beth Dolan, whose grounded feedback and sound pedagogy serve as models in my own teaching. However, I would not be at this point without the members of my committee who saw me through the dissertation stage. I am thankful for Dr. Edward Shapiro’s expertise and willingness to serve as my outside reader. I wish to recognize Dr. Jenna D. Lay for her unflagging support, extensive feedback, and genuine compassion throughout the iv process. Dr. Scott Paul Gordon’s stimulating commentary and patient interaction with my project deserves due recognition. Lastly, I owe a debt of gratitude to Dr. Barbara H. Traister who has come to occupy a special place in my life. Dr. Traister offered a blend of support, guidance, and encouragement that allowed me to go from never having written a seminar paper to completing a dissertation. Without her patience and generosity as a scholar and individual, I would not have reached this pinnacle of my academic career. It is important to note that this milestone would have been unreachable were it not for my family. My mom and dad have believed in me more than I have ever believed in myself. They have given me more in life than I could ever know. However, I do know that they deserve nothing but my utmost respect and enduring love. Finally, I owe my eternal thanks to my fiancée, C. Bridget DuBrey, and our son, Luke. Bridget’s excitement for my project and unconditional support throughout the process have been nothing short of inspirational. I will never forget or overlook the sacrifices she has made in order to see me through the project. But, I am especially thankful for her selfless, undying love. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract 1 Introduction: The Schoolmaster’s Office, “In reality it is very splendid.” 3 Chapter 1: The Schoolmaster’s Status in the Cultural Imagination 29 Chapter 2: Playing, Acting, and Teaching: The Nexus 82 of Drama and Education Chapter 3: University Drama and Drama About the University 120 Chapter 4: Leaving School for Society’s Stage 178 Chapter 5: Performing, Teaching, and “performing teaching” 215 Conclusion: Creating a Profession 251 Works Cited 257 Vita 274 vi ABSTRACT Tudor and Stuart England serves as the ideal sociological, historical, and literary landscape for confronting a turbulent legacy of professionalization among educators. During an era in which occupational groups began to professionalize, teachers—from domestic tutors, to grammar schoolmasters, to university dons—emerged as a vital core of an educationally-conscious and theatrical society. Many early modern educators incorporated drama in their classrooms, and some acted or wrote for the stage. Because of their placement within an inherently educational and dramatic culture, schoolmasters did not enjoy the status and recognition of the so-called traditional professions. Given the theatricality of the classroom, I argue that the early modern stage makes the precariousness of these professionals particularly visible via the dramatic representations of their work. Just as the actors who play schoolmasters on stage must perform their parts, those who practice as educators in daily discourse must act according to a set of rules and expectations set forth by members of the public and by other members of the profession. This common thread of performance binds dramatic and actual schoolmasters together, and their struggle for professional recognition plays out in the confines of the theater or in the classroom. Beyond reflecting the reality of many schoolmasters’ situations, I suggest that on-stage performances of the profession informed or shaped their contemporary professionalization efforts. With the proximity of performance and pedagogy serving as my critical foundation, my project seeks to understand professionalization through the lens of performance. To this end, I offer a series of close readings of key dramatic texts, starting with Gascoigine’s The Glasse of Government, which prominently feature representations 1 of the figure of the schoolmaster. After providing a historical overview that establishes the schoolmaster’s professional identity via the period’s non-dramatic and pedagogical literature, I concentrate on both academic and nonacademic plays in which the schoolmaster (and, by extension, an entire profession) suffers an image crisis that replicates the contemporary professional climate. I highlight how these diversely qualified and positioned educators perform their professions on stage either to the benefit or detriment of a larger, shared professionalization movement. Whereas the period’s vernacular academic drama (as seen in Club Law and The Parnassus Plays) or commercial plays set in the university (Marlow’s Doctor Faustus and Greene’s Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay) largely upholds the profession by demonstrating how central performance was to scholarly, social, and national advancement, the era’s public drama generally depicts a less complimentary reality via performance. When schoolmasters find themselves on the world’s stage beyond their classroom, such as Gerald in The Two Noble Kinsmen and Holofernes in Love’s Labour’s Lost, their professional status is emptied of meaning as made emblematic by their time on stage. In addition to considering representations of established schoolmasters, I devote space to investigating plays (Redford’s Wyt and Science, Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, and Dekker and Webster’s Westward Ho) in which the role of the schoolmaster is freely assumed by non-educators thanks to the performance potentials inhered in the profession. Thus, in viewing the staged schoolmasters’ acting as a display of a larger professional practice built on performance elements, I demonstrate how we might read dramatic representation as an active contributor to the historic professionalization crisis common to early modern schoolmasters. 2 Introduction: The Schoolmaster’s Office, “In reality it is very splendid.” In a 1516 letter to Johann Witz, Desiderius Erasmus replies to one of Witz’s poems written in tribute to Erasmus’ virtues as a scholar and friend.1 Erasmus modestly deflects any praise from himself, and, in the spirit of humanistic exchange, he calls attention to the learned society of experts who surround him. Insisting that Witz’s absence from their company is merely physical, Erasmus reassures his friend of his value not only within his circle of friends but also as a contributing member of society. Addressed to Witz, “teacher of the liberal arts,” the second half of the letter responds to his misgivings about his chosen career path. Erasmus acknowledges the labor-intensive qualities of the work to which his friend has dedicated himself, but he forcefully repudiates Witz’s claims that the work lacks social value: In fact, your lot is, I agree, laborious; that it is tragic, as you call it, or pitiable, I absolutely deny. To be a schoolmaster is an office second in importance to a king. Do you think it a mean task to take your fellow-citizens in their earliest years, to instill in them from the beginning sound learning and Christ himself, and to return them to your country as so many honourable and upright men? Fools may think this a humble office; in reality it is very splendid.
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