Sinking the Globe
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Shakespeare Wrote Shakespeare
OPEN FORUM The Pages of The Oxfordian are open to all sides of the Authorship Question Shakespeare Wrote Shakespeare David Kathman or the vast majority of Shake- speare scholars, there is no ‘au- thorship question’; they agree that F the works of William Shake- speare were written by William Shake- speare of Stratford-upon-Avon (allow- ing for some collaboration), and tend to ignore or dismiss anyone who claims oth- erwise. In the following pages I will try to explain, from the perspective of a Shake- speare scholar, why the Stratford Shakespeare’s authorship is so generally ac- cepted by historians, and why those historians do not take seriously the various attempts to deny that attribution. I realize from experience that this explanation is not likely to convince many committed antistratfordians, but at the very least I hope to correct some misconceptions about what Shakespeare scholars actually believe. For the purposes of argument, we can distinguish among three main strands of William Shakespeare’s biography, which I will call Stratford Shakespeare, Actor Shakespeare, and Author Shakespeare. Stratford Shakespeare was baptized in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1564, married Anne Hathaway in 1582, had three children with her, bought New Place in 1597 and various other properties in and around Stratford over the following decade, and was buried in there in 1616. Actor Shakespeare was a member of the Lord Chamberlain’s/King’s Men, the leading acting company in London from 1594 on, and an original sharer in the Globe and Blackfriars playhouses. Author Shakespeare signed the dedications of Venus and Adonis (1593) and The Rape of Lucrece (1594), and over the next twenty years was named on title 13 THE OXFORDIAN Volume XI 2009 Kathman pages as the author of numerous plays and poems, and was praised by such crit- ics as Francis Meres and Gabriel Harvey. -
THE ALCHEMIST THROUGH the AGES an Investigation of the Stage
f [ THE ALCHEMIST THROUGH THE AGES An investigation of the stage history of Ben Jonson's play by JAMES CUNNINGHAM CARTER B.Sc., University of British Columbia, 196 8 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT. OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in the Department of English We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA October 1972 In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study. I further agree that permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the Head of my Department or by his representatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Department of The University of British Columbia Vancouver 8, Canada Date 27 QclAtt ii ABSTRACT THE ALCHEMIST THROUGH THE AGES An Investigation of the Stage History of Ben Jonson's Play This study was made to trace the stage history of The Alchemist and to see what effect theatrical productions can have in developing critical awareness of Jonson's dramatic skill in this popular play. Therefore an attempt has been made to record all performances by major companies between 1610 and 197 0 with cast lists and other pertinent information about scenery/ stage action and properties. The second part of the thesis provides a detailed analysis of four specific productions considered in light of their prompt books, details of acting and production, and overall critical reception. -
Natural Folly and Subversion in Much Ado About Nothing*
Tiyatro Eleştirmenliği ve Dramaturji Bölümü Dergisi Journal of Theatre Criticism and Dramaturgy Tiyatro Eleştirmenliği ve Dramaturji Bölümü Dergisi 32, (2021): xx-xx DOI: 10.26650/jtcd.861023 Research Article / Araştırma Makalesi Dog’s Day: Natural Folly and Subversion in Much Ado About Nothing* Ben Haworth1 ABSTRACT This essay argues that Shakespeare’s natural fools, clowns, rustics, and buffoons provide far more than light comic relief. Using the example of Dogberry, from Much Ado About Nothing, I demonstrate that in allowing his fools to usurp their position of clownish caricature, to move outside of their normal social spheres, Shakespeare exposes the folly within societal institutions. Though an examination of language, namely the use of malapropisms, and the manipulation of traditional licence extended to natural fools, I contend that such theatrical *This article is prepared with reference to the master dissertation titled “Early Modern depictions of folly opened the way for social commentary, parody and inversions Motley: The Function of Fools and Folly on the of hierarchies of power on the stage. Shakespearean Stage”, completed in 2016 at Keywords: Shakespeare, Subversion, Folly, Malapropism, Dogberry Nottingham Trent University UK. 1Lecturer, Nottingham Trent University, English Faculty, UK ORCID: B.H. 0000-0002-3318-8666 Corresponding author / Sorumlu yazar: Ben Haworth, Lecturer, Nottingham Trent University, English Faculty, UK E-mail/E-posta: [email protected] Submitted/Başvuru: 14.01.2021 Revision Requested/Revizyon Talebi: 05.02.2021 Last Revision Received/Son Revizyon: 05.02.2021 Accepted/Kabul: 15.03.2021 Citation/Atıf: Haworth, Ben. “Dog’s Day: Natural Folly and Subversion in Much Ado About Nothing” Tiyatro Eleştirmenliği ve Dramaturji Bölümü Dergisi 32, (2021): xx-xx. -
The Fools of Shakespeare's Romances
Sede Amministrativa: Università degli Studi di Padova Dipartimento di Studi Linguistici e Letterari (DISLL) SCUOLA DI DOTTORATO DI RICERCA IN: Scienze Linguistiche, Filologiche e Letterarie INDIRIZZO: Filologie e Letterature Classiche e Moderne CICLO XXVI “Armine... thou art a foole and knaue”: The Fools of Shakespeare’s Romances Direttore della Scuola : Ch.ma Prof.ssa Rosanna Benacchio Supervisore : Ch.ma Prof.ssa Alessandra Petrina Dottoranda : Alice Equestri Abstract La mia tesi propone un’analisi dettagliata dei personaggi comici nei romances Shakespeariani (Pericles, Cymbeline, The Winter’s Tale e The Tempest) in particolare quelli creati appositamente per Robert Armin, attore comico di punta dei King’s Men in quel periodo. Nel primo capitolo traccio la presenza di Armin nei quattro testi, individuando cioè gli indizi che rimandano alla sua figura e alla tipologia di comicità tipica dei suoi personaggi precedenti in Shakespeare e di quelli presenti nelle sue stesse opere. I quattro personaggi creati per lui da Shakespeare vengono analizzati in profondità nei seguenti capitoli, raggruppandoli a seconda dei loro ruoli sociali o professioni. Nel secondo capitolo mi occupo dei fools criminali, considerando Pericles e The Winter’s Tale, dove i personaggi di Boult e Autolycus sono rispettivamente un ruffiano di bordello e un delinquente di strada. Nel terzo capitolo mi concentro invece sui personaggi che esibiscono o vengono discriminati per una reale od imputata deficienza congenita (natural folly): il principe Cloten in Cymbeline e Caliban in The Tempest. Per ciascun caso discuto il rapporto del personaggio con le fonti shakespeariane ed eventualmente con la tradizione comica precedente o contemporanea a Shakespeare, il ruolo all’interno del testo, e il modo in cui il personaggio suscita l’effetto comico. -
“Revenge in Shakespeare's Plays”
“REVENGE IN SHAKESPEARE’S PLAYS” “OTHELLO” – LECTURE/CLASS WRITTEN: 1603-1604…. although some critics place the date somewhat earlier in 1601- 1602 mainly on the basis of some “echoes” of the play in the 1603 “bad” quarto of “Hamlet”. AGE: 39-40 Years Old (B.1564-D.1616) CHRONO: Four years after “Hamlet”; first in the consecutive series of tragedies followed by “King Lear”, “Macbeth” then “Antony and Cleopatra”. GENRE: “The Great Tragedies” SOURCES: An Italian tale in the collection “Gli Hecatommithi” (1565) of Giovanni Battista Giraldi (writing under the name Cinthio) from which Shakespeare also drew for the plot of “Measure for Measure”. John Pory’s 1600 translation of John Leo’s “A Geographical History of Africa”; Philemon Holland’s 1601 translation of Pliny’s “History of the World”; and Lewis Lewkenor’s 1599 “The Commonwealth and Government of Venice” mainly translated from a Latin text by Cardinal Contarini. STRUCTURE: “More a domestic tragedy than ‘Hamlet’, ‘Lear’ or ‘Macbeth’ concentrating on the destruction of Othello’s marriage and his murder of his wife rather than on affairs of state and the deaths of kings”. SUCCESS: The tragedy met with high success both at its initial Globe staging and well beyond mainly because of its exotic setting (Venice then Cypress), the “foregrounding of issues of race, gender and sexuality”, and the powerhouse performance of Richard Burbage, the most famous actor in Shakespeare’s company. HIGHLIGHT: Performed at the Banqueting House at Whitehall before King James I on 1 November 1604. AFTER: The play has been performed steadily since 1604; for a production in 1660 the actress Margaret Hughes as Desdemona “could have been the first professional actress on the English stage”. -
University of Szeged Faculty of Arts Doctoral School of English and American Literatures and Cultures
CB WSf University of Szeged Faculty of Arts Doctoral School of English and American Literatures and Cultures THE VICE-DEVICE: IAGO AND LEAR'S FOOL AS AGENTS OF REPRESENTATIONAL CRISIS PhD THESIS Submitted by Agnes MATUSKA Supervisor Dr. Attila KISS Szeged 2005 THE VICE-DEVICE: IAGO AND LEAR'S FOOL AS AGENTS OF REPRESENTATIONAL CRISIS INTRODUCTION 3 1. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND, METHODOLOGY 11 1. L THE QUESTION OF EPISTEMOLOGICAL CRISIS 12 1.2 DIALECTICAL TRAGEDY: EPISTEMIC CHANGE IN THEATRE 21 1.3 "IF ACODE IS CRUMBLING..." 25 1.4 REPRESENTATIONAL CRISIS IN SHAKESPEARE 28 2. HAPHAZARDLY AMBIDEXTROUS: THE VICE-FAMILY 35 2. L PROBLEMS OF DEFINITION 35 "YOU WILL LEARN TO PLAYE THE VICE": PROBLEMS OF INTERPRETATION 37 2.2 VICES 48 Merry Report 49 Ambidexter 52 Haphazard 56 Punisher or punished? 60 The Fool in the Vice 66 2.3. VICE-SUCCESSORS AND FOOLS 72 Intriguer villains 73 Sir John Falstaff: The Vice-Fool 77 The "corrupter of-words": Feste 81 Deceiver among deceivers: Parolles 85 Afterlife of post-vices and the common life of lago and the Fool 87 2.4. THE VICE-CLOWN ON THE SHAKESPEAREAN STAGE 91 3. METADRAMA 97 3. L METADRAMA AND THE VICE, A DEFINITION OF THE TERM 97 3.1.1 The Vice as mediator 97 3.1.2 Metadrama in Shakespeare-criticism 102 3.2 MEANING AS AN EVENT - IAGO AND METADRAMA IN OTHELLO 107 3.2.1 Commenting on drama, involving the audience 109 3.2.2 Iago's book of identity and role-playing 110 3.2.3 Plays -within - Iago as director 117 3.2.4 Representation as fiction 121 3.2.5 Iago's metadramatic effect—summary 122 3.3 METADRAMATIC ASPECTS OF THE FOOL 124 3.3.1 The Fool and his audience 125 3.3.2 "All thy other titles " 127 3.3.3 Plays of the fool -within and without. -
2019 Seminar Abstracts: the King's Men and Their Playwrights
1 2019 Seminar Abstracts: The King’s Men and Their Playwrights Meghan C. Andrews, Lycoming College James J. Marino, Cleveland State University “Astonishing Presence”: Writing for a Boy Actress of the King’s Men, c. 1610-1616 Roberta Barker, Dalhousie University Although scholarship has acknowledged the influence of leading actors such as Richard Burbage on the plays created for the King’s Men, less attention has been paid to the ways in which the gifts and limitations of individual boy actors may have affected the company’s playwrights. Thanks to the work of scholars such as David Kathman and Martin Wiggins, however, it is now more feasible than ever to identify the periods during which specific boys served their apprenticeships with the company and the plays in which they likely performed. Building on that scholarship, my paper will focus on the repertoire of Richard Robinson (c.1597-1648) during his reign as one of the King’s Men’s leading actors of female roles. Surviving evidence shows that Robinson played the Lady in Middleton’s Second Maiden’s Tragedy in 1611 and that he appeared in Jonson’s Catiline (1611) and Fletcher’s Bonduca (c.1612-14). Using a methodology first envisioned in 1699, when one of the interlocutors in James Wright’s Historia Histrionica dreamt of reconstructing the acting of pre-Civil War London by “gues[sing] at the action of the Men, by the Parts which we now read in the Old Plays” (3), I work from this evidence to suggest that Robinson excelled in the roles of nobly born, defiant tragic heroines: women of “astonishing presence,” as Helvetius says of the Lady in The Second Maiden’s Tragedy (2.1.74). -
The National Archives Req 2/706 1 ______
THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES REQ 2/706 1 ________________________________________________________________________ SUMMARY The documents below are the pleadings, interrogatories, depositions and orders in a lawsuit initiated on 28 January 1632 in the Court of Requests by Cuthbert Burbage (1564/5-1636), Richard Robinson (d.1648?), Winifred Robinson (d.1642), William Heminges (1602?-1649x53), John Lowin (1576?-1653) and Joseph Taylor (1586?-1652) against Sir Mathew Brend (1600-1659) for performance of a covenant signed by Sir Mathew Brend in his minority granting the surviving shareholders a further lease of the ground on which the Globe was built for fifteen years, to commence immediately after the expiry of the old lease for thirty-one years which had been granted by his father, Nicholas Brend (d.1601), by indenture dated 21 February 1599, to Cuthbert Burbage, Richard Burbage (1568-1619), William Shakespeare (1564-1616) of Stratford upon Avon, Augustine Phillips (d.1605), Thomas Pope (d.1603), John Heminges (1566?- 1630) and William Kempe. The lawsuit was finally settled in court on 18 November 1634 by agreement of the parties that Sir Mathew Brend would grant a further lease of nine years at a rent of £40 per year. However the new lease had not been signed at the date of an order made by the then Lord Chamberlain, Philip Herbert (1584-1650), 1st Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery, on 12 July 1635 (see TNA LC 5/133, pp. 44-51), and had still not been signed when Cuthbert Burbage died on 15 September 1636. The final extant decree in the case is dated 28 November 1637. -
"A Sharers' Repertory." Rethinking Theatrical
Syme, Holger Schott. "A Sharers’ Repertory." Rethinking Theatrical Documents in Shakespeare’s England. Ed. Tiffany Stern. London: The Arden Shakespeare, 2020. 33–51. Bloomsbury Collections. Web. 26 Sep. 2021. <http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781350051379.ch-002>. Downloaded from Bloomsbury Collections, www.bloomsburycollections.com, 26 September 2021, 08:28 UTC. Copyright © Tiffany Stern and contributors 2020. You may share this work for non-commercial purposes only, provided you give attribution to the copyright holder and the publisher, and provide a link to the Creative Commons licence. 2 A Sharers’ Repertory Holger Schott Syme Without Philip Henslowe, we would know next to nothing about the kinds of repertories early modern London’s resident theatre companies offered to their audiences. As things stand, thanks to the existence of the manuscript commonly known as Henslowe’s Diary , scholars have been able to contemplate the long lists of receipts and expenses that record the titles of well over 200 plays, most of them now lost. The Diary gives us some sense of the richness and diversity of this repertory, of the rapid turnover of plays, and of the kinds of investments theatre companies made to mount new shows. It also names a plethora of actors and other professionals associated with the troupes at the Rose. But, because the records are a fi nancier’s and theatre owner’s, not those of a sharer in an acting company, they do not document how a group of actors decided which plays to stage, how they chose to alternate successful shows, or what they, as actors, were looking for in new commissions. -
Othello Theme: the Challenges of Staging the Play
Discovering Literature www.bl.uk/shakespeare Teachers’ Notes Curriculum subject: English Literature Key Stage: 4 and 5 Author / Text: William Shakespeare, Othello Theme: The challenges of staging the play Rationale These activities encourage young people to join the debate about how to stage and cast Othello. Students will consider the sensitive question of who should play the central roles – black or white actors, men or women. Using controversial paintings, playbills and production photos, they will explore how changing social contexts have shaped the way Othello has been staged over the course of four centuries. They will debate the pros and cons of different productions, and plan how they would stage the play if they could do so themselves. Content Literary and historical sources from the site: Portrait of Richard Burbage (early 17th century) The first illustrated works of Shakespeare edited by Nicholas Rowe (1709) Painting of Ira Aldridge as Othello (1826) Playbill advertising Ira Aldridge’s appearance as Othello in Northampton (1831) Playbill advertising Ira Aldridge’s appearance as Othello, Richard III and Shylock in Newcastle (1845) Paul Robeson as Othello and Uta Hagen as Desdemona (1943–44) Postcard of Olivier as Othello (1964) Photograph of Hugh Quarshie and Lucian Msamati in Othello (2015) Photograph of Joanna Vanderham and Hugh Quarshie in Othello (2015) Recommended reading (short articles): Playing Othello: Hugh Quarshie Othello, the role that entices and enrages actors of all skin colours: Andrew Dickson External -
And Performance
and Performance THE REPERTORY SYSTEM PLAYS A successful play would typically run for eight to twelve performances over a period of four to Playing companies in six months the 1590s presented a different play each AUDIENCES day, selecting from a The demand from repertoire of usually London audiences twenty to forty plays ACTING for new plays forced COMPANIES companies to add a new play every two weeks Two most significant (and rival) acting companies: the Admiral’s Men and the Lord Chamberlain’s Men Typical types of plays included: tragedies (Othello, Romeo and Juliet), comedies (Twelfth Night), and histories (Henry VIs All classes of society and Richards) visited public theatre PLAYWRIGHTS ACTORS Richard Burbage, 1568-1619 A member of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men from 1594, a close collaborator with Shakespeare, and a frequent player in his plays William Ben Shakespeare Jonson William Kemp, 1585-1603 A prominent comic actor in Shakespeare’s company in 1590s Robert Armin, 1563-1615 A writer and comic actor in Christopher John Shakespeare’s company who Marlowe Fletcher most notably portrayed the wise fools TH 17 CENTURY1642-1660 1660 Interregnum, Restoration period, when period when theatre going became a public theatres fashionable and social were closed experience POPULAR TYPES OF PLAYS HEROIC DRAMA PATHETIC TRAGEDY RESTORATION COMEDY (The Conquest of Granada (The Orphan (The Country Wife by John Dryden) by Thomas Otway) by William Wycherly) INNOVATION Special effects on stage became increasingly technical with the introduction of scenery -
Richard Burbage and William Shakespeare
detail of the sketch showing the head of Tamora (fig. 3) was compared with two authentic portraits of the actor,1 one of which is here reproduced in part (fig. 4). Optical resemblances emerged in six respects: (1) medium-high, sloping forehead, (2) prominent nose, (3) nostrils (curved lower edge of the left nostril), (4) thin outside upper lip, (5) thin outside lower lip, (6) low chin. No divergences were detected. According to the expert opinion, this result suggests that the persons depicted in the Titus sketch (as Tamora) and in the Burbage portraits are identical. In the case of the actor playing Titus, whom I believe to be William Shakespeare, it was not possible for the Bundeskriminalamt experts to make a forensic pictorial comparison, as a considerable portion of the head is concealed – the forehead by a broad laurel wreath and much of the face by a beard, sideburns and a moustache (fig. 5). However, identification of Richard Burbage in the Peacham sketch does not only constitute evidence that Peacham drew it directly from an Elizabethan performance and that the first great Shakespearean actor was presumably depicted here for the first time. In view of the close cooperation and joint appearances of Burbage and Shakespeare as the main actors in the Lord Chamberlain's Men, it also allows us to conclude that this 1594 drawing of the opening scene of William Shakespeare’s early revenge play Titus Andronicus shows the playwright himself in the role of the eponymous hero (cf. fig. 5).2 In her essay "Rereading the Peacham Drawing" June Schlueter propounds the thesis that "the Peacham drawing depicts a sequence from Eine sehr klägliche Tragœdia von Tito Andronico und der hoffertigen Käyserin (A very Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus and the Haughty Empress), a play perfomed in Germany by English actors which survives, in German, in a volume published in Leipzig in 1620 as Engelische Comedien und Tragedien" (Schlueter 1999, 171).