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Thomas Dekker's Heroines

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Thomas Dekker's Heroines Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies English Language and Literature Tereza Tichá Thomas Dekker’s Heroines Bachelor’s Diploma Thesis Supervisor: Mgr. Pavel Drábek, Ph.D. 2011 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography. …………………………………………….. Author’s signature 2 Acknowledgement: I would like to thank to Mgr. Pavel Drábek, Ph.D. for his support and valuable advice. 3 Table of Contents Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 5 1 Thomas Dekker .............................................................................................................. 8 2 English Renaissance Drama ......................................................................................... 12 2.1 Collaboration and Authorship ............................................................................... 15 3 The Honest Whore ....................................................................................................... 18 3.1 Synopsis ................................................................................................................ 19 3.2 Women and Men in The Honest Whore ............................................................... 20 3.3 The Character of Bellafront .................................................................................. 24 4 The Roaring Girl .......................................................................................................... 28 4.1 Synopsis ................................................................................................................ 30 4.2 The Position of Single Women in the Seventeenth Century ................................ 31 4.3 The Character of Moll Cutpurse ........................................................................... 33 5 The Witch of Edmonton ................................................................................................ 38 5.1 Synopsis ................................................................................................................ 40 5.2 The Witchcraft in the Elizabethan Period ............................................................. 41 5.3 The Character of Mother Sawyer .......................................................................... 43 6 The Similarities and Differences among Bellafront, Moll Cutpurse and Mother Sawyer ............................................................................................................................ 49 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 56 Works Cited .................................................................................................................... 59 Czech Resume ................................................................................................................. 63 English Resume .............................................................................................................. 64 4 Introduction This thesis deals with Thomas Dekker, one of the English dramatists of the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras, who received less attention than his contemporaries like William Shakespeare and Thomas Middleton. Although much has been written about the authors of that period, Thomas Dekker’s contribution to literature has been frequently neglected. In general, he is often presented as a talented playwright, versatile author and pamphleteer, who produced a vast amount of plays and pamphlets, however, most of his work is lost. This work focuses on Thomas Dekker’s heroines. Although there are more plays that could be analyzed and almost each of them is significant in a different way, after careful consideration only three works and their main female characters have been selected. The justification is following: I have chosen three at first sight absolutely different heroines, who are not ordinary women; they are rather odd characters who could be even perceived as so-called deviant figures: a whore, a single woman disguising herself and a witch. Nevertheless, after a closer examination some similar features appeared. This claim is verified in this work and is an essential part of the main argument of my thesis: Thomas Dekker was a prolific author, who conformed to the tastes of audience of the time and the transformation of drama and genres at the end of the sixteenth century, and created unforgettable characters, who share some differences as well as some obvious similarities. Another aim of this work is to provide an overall and complete picture of Thomas Dekker, his life and works, and of the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras. The intention of this work was to follow as many sources as possible to summarize the basic facts about Thomas Dekker and about three analyzed works, however, only few books dealing exclusively with Thomas Dekker have been published 5 so far. The one written by Mary Leland Hunt and published in 1911was after a critical appraisal reconsidered to be partly ill-founded, out-of-date and inappropriate to serve as a secondary source for this thesis. Instead of it, the books summarizing the history of English drama and mentioning, sometimes very briefly, the name of Thomas Dekker have been followed. Cyrus Hoy’s Introduction, Notes and Commentaries to texts in 'The Dramatic Works of Thomas Dekker’ and Thomas Wyatt’s The Dramatic Works of Thomas Dekker served as the most significant sources for this thesis. Some essays published in Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 have been considered as well. However, Martin Wiggins’s Shakespeare and the Drama of his Time and Kathleen E. McLuskie’s Dekker and Heywood: Professional Dramatists have served as important sources for this thesis because these authors provide a very detailed description of the drama and theatre of the time. Moreover, McLuskie elaborates Dekker’s and Heywood’s contribution. Originally included essays written by Barbara Kreps were finally excluded; or more precisely - her rather problematic attitudes towards Thomas Dekker’s heroines are mentioned; sometimes they are used to emphasise the contrast to my own opinion. Due to the often collaboration of Thomas Dekker and other authors, books about Thomas Middleton written by Gary Taylor and John Lavagnino, and Suzanne Gossett were used and included as well. The content of this thesis is divided into six chapters. The first chapter of the work is dedicated to Thomas Dekker, his life and creation. Although these facts could be viewed as unimportant or irrelevant, I decided to incorporate them into this work. It provides, together with the second chapter that deals with English Renaissance drama, basic and significant information about the author, his style of writing, some themes covered by his work as well as the facts about the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods. The crucial and major changes in drama, theatre and the public taste are mentioned as 6 well. The terms such as drama and comedy are explained there too. These two chapters provide a necessary background for the works that are analyzed in the following parts of this thesis. On the other hand, these chapters are not as extensive as the following ones because the focus of this thesis is the analysis of some plays. Three following sections deal with the three chosen plays: The Honest Whore, The Roaring Girl and The Witch of Edmonton. The structure of these three sections is similar: first, the basic facts about the play are mentioned. Afterwards, the synopsis is shortly summarized. After that the individuality of the main heroine of the play is analyzed because each of these female characters finds herself in a unique position in society. Therefore the depiction of circumstances, contemporary situation of women, concretely single women, and the issue of witchcraft are presented. The final part of each chapter is dedicated solely to one of the three analyzed heroines: Bellafront, Moll Cutpurse and Mother Sawyer. The final chapter is rather comparative: the facts presented in the previous chapters are summarized there and the similarity among three analyzed heroines is examined even though their natures seem to be absolutely different. Several main points are presented here to verify at first sight hidden connections. 7 1 Thomas Dekker It is not known either when exactly Thomas Dekker was born or when he died. According to contemporary evidence, he was born later than in 1570, probably in 1572, in London, and his last name could suggest Dutch or German origin. His Dutch ancestry would explain his often usage of the Dutch as well as his knowledge of the German story of Old Fortunatus and His Sons that inspired The Pleasant Comedie of Old Fortunatus that he wrote in 1599. It is not known how he spent his youth and where he obtained all his knowledge; however, he often uses Latin and mentions some characters of classical mythology. Moreover, Virgil and Seneca are quoted in some of his works. These facts suggest that Dekker attended grammar school. As far as the first written record about Thomas Dekker is concerned, it came from early 15981 from Philip Henslowe’s diary. Gurr states that “Thomas Dekker in 1598 had a busy year, during which he shared in the writing of sixteen plays; his total payment for Henslowe was £30.” (The Shakespearean Stage 1574-1642 72). Above- mentioned Henslowe’s Diary edited by R. A. Foakes proves to be
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