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STAGING Spectatorship in the Plays of PHILIP Massinger

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STAGING Spectatorship in the Plays of PHILIP Massinger STAGING SPECTATORSHIP IN THE PLAYS OF PHILIP MASSINGER The playwrights composing for the London stage between 1580 and 1642 repeatedly staged plays-within and other metatheatrical inserts. Such works present fictionalized spectators as well as performers, providing images of the audience–stage interaction within the theatre. They are as much enactments of the interpretive work of a spectator as of acting, and as such they are a potential source of information about early modern conceptions of audiences, spectatorship and perception. This study examines on-stage spectatorship in three plays by Philip Massinger, head playwright for the King’s Men from 1625 to 1640. Each play presents a different form of metatheatrical inset, from the plays-within of The Roman Actor (1626), to the masques-within of The City Madam (1632) to the titular miniature portrait of The Picture (1629), moving thematically from spectator interpretations of dramatic performance, the visual spectacle of the masque to staged “readings” of static visual art. All three forms present a dramatization of the process of examination, and allow an analysis of Massinger’s assumptions about interpretation, perception and spectator response. Joanne Rochester is Assistant Professor of English, University of Saskatchewan, Canada. ROUTLEDGE Routledge Taylor & Francis Group LONDON AND NEW YORK Studies in Performance and Early Modern Drama General Editor’s Preface Helen Ostovich, McMaster University Performance assumes a string of creative, analytical, and collaborative acts that, in defiance of theatrical ephemerality, live on through records, manuscripts, and printed books. The monographs and essay collections in this series offer original research which addresses theatre histories and performance histories in the context of the sixteenth and seventeenth century life. Of especial interest are studies in which women’s activities are a central feature of discussion as financial or technical supporters (patrons, musicians, dancers, seamstresses, wigmakers, or ‘gatherers’), if not authors or performers per se. Welcome too are critiques of early modern drama that not only take into account the production values of the plays, but also speculate on how intellectual advances or popular culture affect the theatre. The series logo, selected by my colleague Mary V. Silcox, derives from Thomas Combe’s duodecimo volume, The Theater of Fine Devices (London, 1592), Emblem VI, sig. B. The emblem of four masks has a verse which makes claims for the increasing complexity of early modern experience, a complexity that makes interpretation difficult. Hence the corresponding perhaps uneasy rise in sophistication: Masks will be more hereafter in request, And grow more deare than they did heretofore. No longer simply signs of performance “in play and jest”, the mask has become the “double face” worn “in earnest” even by “the best” of people, in order to manipulate or profit from the world around them. The books stamped with this design attempt to understand the complications of performance produced on stage and interpreted by the audience, whose experiences outside the theatre may reflect the emblem’s argument: Most men do use some colour’d shift For to conceal their craftie drift. Centuries after their first presentations, the possible performance choices and meanings they engender still stir the imaginations of actors, audiences, and readers of early plays. The products of scholarly creativity in this series, I hope, will also stir imaginations to new ways of thinking about performance. Staging Spectatorship in the Plays of Philip Massinger JOANNE ROCHESTER University of Saskatchewan, Canada ROUTLEDGE Routledge Taylor & Francis Group LONDON AND NEW YORK First published 2010 by Ashgate Publishing Published 2016 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Copyright © Joanne Rochester 2010 Joanne Rochester has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Notices. Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Rochester, Joanne. Staging spectatorship in the plays of Philip Massinger. – (Studies in performance and early modern drama) 1. Massinger, Philip, 1583–1640 – Criticism and interpretation. 2. Play within a play. 3. English drama – 17th century – History and criticism. I. Title II. Series 822.3–dc22 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Rochester, Joanne. Staging spectatorship in the plays of Philip Massinger / Joanne Rochester. p. cm. – (Studies in performance and early modern drama) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-7546-3080-7 (hardback: alk. paper) 1. Massinger, Philip, 1583–1640 – Criticism and interpretation. 2. Theater audiences in literature. 3. Visual perception in literature. 4. Theater audiences – England – History – 17th century. I. Title. PR2707.R63 2010 822’.3–dc22 2009031368 ISBN 9780754630807 (hbk) Contents List of Figures vii Acknowledgements ix Introduction 1 1 “What Doe wee acte to day?”: Plays within the Play: The Roman Actor 15 2 “For your sport / You shall see a masterpiece”: Masques-within in The Picture, The Guardian and The City Madam 53 3 “Speculations / On cheating pictures”: Visual Art as Dramatic Inset: The Picture 95 Conclusion: “Make your howse the stage on which weel act / Our comick sceane”: Trials and Paradramatic Scenes 125 Bibliography 141 Index 167 This page intentionally left blank List of Figures 1.1 “A table describyng the burning of Byshop Ridley and Father Latymer at Oxford, Doctor Smith there preaching at the time of theyr Martyrdome”. John Foxe, Acts and Monuments (1583). © 2009 The Folger Shakespeare Library (STC 11223.2 Vol 2). Reproduced with permission. 36 2.1 “Emblem 40: The Choice of Hercules” (detail) from Geffery Whitney, A Choice of Emblemes (1586). © 2009 The Folger Shakespeare Library (STC 25438 Copy 1). Reproduced with permission. 67 2.2 “A Declaration for the certain time of drawing the great standing Lottery” (detail). Virginia Company Broadside (22 February 1615). © 2009 Society of Antiquaries (Lemon broadside 151). Reproduced with permission. 84 This page intentionally left blank Acknowledgements This book owes its existence to the grace and goodwill of many people. Of these, the first to thank are Helen Ostovich and Erica Gaffney, whose forbearance, support and encouragement have been all but miraculous. I owe a vast debt of gratitude to Martin White, both for his kind and astute comments on the first chapter, early in this process, and for his mention of it in the introduction to his Revels Edition of The Roman Actor. I am also grateful to the two anonymous readers for Ashgate, whose comments and feedback on what was then a ragged monster have made this a much better book. Alexander Leggatt patiently presided over the birth of this document, many years ago; his kindly long-term guidance has my undying affection. I am also thankful to Ann Lancashire, John Astington, Alexandra Johnstone and other faculty members of the English Department at the University of Toronto. The work of Nova Myhill influenced my thinking from a distance; her friendship, and that of Meg Powers Livingstone, has helped to frame my thinking about Caroline drama; a discussion with Sophie Tomlinson on spectatorship at the MLA was also very helpful. Finally, I am thankful for the support of colleagues and friends who read, debated or corrected this document or others connected to it: among them David Parkinson, Lisa Vargo, Holly Forsythe, the members of the CMRS at the University of Saskatchewan, the members of my thesis reading group at the University of Toronto, Tanya Wood, Tanya Hagen, Sue Carter and Kim Yates, and my good friends Casie Hermanson, Alice Palumbo, Georgia Wilder and Chet Scoville. Finally, I want to thank my mother and father, Harry James Rochester and Tordis Marie Rochester, who have paid, in so many ways, for everything. This page intentionally left blank Introduction Renaissance drama compulsively reflects on itself. The playwrights composing for the London stage between 1580 and 1642 repeatedly stage performances of performance, repeating the conditions of their own productions: again and again, the theatre audience watches a fictional audience watch the work of a company of players, dancers, singers or mimes. Although most studies of Renaissance metadrama focus on the content of the play-within itself, plays-within and other metadramatic inserts represent both participants in the theatrical experience, providing images of the audience–stage interaction within the theatre. They are as much enactments of spectatorship—the interpretive work of a spectator—as of acting, and as such they are a potential source of information about Early Modern conceptions of audiences, spectatorship and perception. In metadramatic plays from Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy at the opening of the period to Brome’s The Antipodes at its close, the fictional audience
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