The Treatment of the Middle Class in the City Comedies of Thomas
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THE ELIZABETHAN STAGE AS TRIBUTARY: MERCANTILISM, NATIONALISM, and SOCIAL MOBILITY in THREE POPULAR DRAMAS a Thesis Submitted To
THE ELIZABETHAN STAGE AS TRIBUTARY: MERCANTILISM, NATIONALISM, AND SOCIAL MOBILITY IN THREE POPULAR DRAMAS A Thesis Submitted to the College of Graduate Studies and Research In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Master of Arts In the Department of English University of Saskatchewan Saskatoon By Adam Benn Keywords: Dekker, Heywood, Renaissance Drama, Mercantilism, Nationalism, Tudor Theatre. Copyright Adam Benn, August, 2011. All rights reserved. Permission to Use In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for a Postgraduate degree from the University of Saskatchewan, I agree that the Libraries of this University may make it freely available for inspection. I further agree that permission for copying of this thesis in any manner, in whole or in part, for scholarly purposes may be granted by the professor or professors who supervised my thesis work or, in their absence, by the Head of the Department or the Dean of the College in which my thesis work was done. It is understood that any copying or publication or use of this thesis or parts thereof for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. It is also understood that due recognition shall be given to me and to the University of Saskatchewan in any scholarly use which may be made of any material in my thesis. Requests for permission to copy or to make other use of material in this thesis in whole or part should be addressed to: Head of the Department of English 320 Arts Building University of Saskatchewan 9 Campus Drive Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7N 5A5 Canada Benn i ABSTRACT This thesis examines the relationship between social mobility, early mercantilism, and nationalism in three Elizabethan Popular Dramas: Thomas Dekker's The Shoemaker's Holiday, and Thomas Heywood's The Fair Maid of the West, Part I, and The Four Prentices of London. -
AN EXAMINATION of PLAYS in MANUSCRIPT ET ME Begin by Stating As Clearly As I Can the Purpose L.4 of This Exploratory Study
TEXTUAL DEGENERATION OF ELlZABETHAN AND STUART PLAYS: AN EXAMINATION OF PLAYS IN MANUSCRIPT ET ME begin by stating as clearly as I can the purpose l.4 of this exploratory study. It has seemed to me that in accounting for variation among Elizabethan and post-Eliza- bethan dramatic texts too little weight has been given to the activities of prompters and actors as compared with those of printers and copyists. According to R. B. McKerrow and Evelyn Albright,l the incompetence of printers has been greatly exaggerated, and the defense they offer seems sound and just, and, as for copyists, they seem, as a class, to have been the most efficient of those who worked on plays. On the other hand, the conditions of play production, now, in the Elizabethan age and in general, are such as not only to pro- voke alteration of texts but to necessitate it. The simplest in- vestigation of the history of Shakespeare on the stage (and on the screen) will reveal habitual and not infrequently vio- Ient modifications of his texts and even of his intentions. A visit to a production lot will convince any visitor that the pro- ducer feels free to alter the script without any reference to the author or what he has written. I remember a conversa- tion in 1908 with Eugene Walter, whose Paid in Full was then en uogue, and of hearing him describe without the least of- fense, indeed with pride, the great changes made in his play when it was produced on Broadway, Stage aIterations are and have been since the Elizabethan age and before the merest commonplace and by no means inconsiderable. -
The Suburbs and the City in Thomas Dekker's Shoemaker's Holiday
Sites of transgression: The suburbs and the city in Thomas Dekker’s Shoemaker’s Holiday Paul J. C. M. Franssen Utrecht University ABSTRACT The early modern binary of the virtuous City of London versus the sinful suburbs clashes with an older binary pitting the countryside against the city. At the same time, the forces of urbanization along with early capitalism were undermining both binaries. This article traces how this is reflected in Thomas Dekker’s The Shoemaker’s Holiday . The play not only represents the City of London under Simon Eyre’s rule as, potentially, possessing all the virtues of the pastoral, but also suggests that the surrounding countryside, in particular the village of Old Ford, was being corrupted by city values. Dekker’s play, therefore, deconstructs simple dichotomies between country and city, showing how the two inevitably influence each other. KEYWORDS : Thomas Dekker, The Shoemaker’s Holiday , City Comedy, Countryside. Jean Howard’s fascinating study of City Comedy, or as she prefers to call it, London Comedy, is structured around a variety of real places within London, some specific (such as the Royal Exchange and the various Counters or debtors’ prisons), others generic (such as bawdy houses and dancing academies). Howard associates these places within London with various discourses of gender, national identity, class, and the new money values. She regards these discourses as not primarily reflections of what really happened at these sites, but at least as much as constituting ways of thinking about such places, turning them into meaningful social spaces (2007:3, 32). Howard shows how the explosive growth of London into a world city undermined old certainties, often cast in the form of simple binaries, Sederi 22 (2012: 139-154) P. -
From Sidney to Heywood: the Social Status of Commercial Theatre in Early Modern London
From Sidney to Heywood: the social status of commercial theatre in early modern London Romola Nuttall (King’s College London, UK) The Literary London Journal, Volume 14 Number 1 (Spring 2017) Abstract Thomas Heywood’s Apology for Actors (written c. 1608, published 1612) is one of the only stand-alone, printed deFences of the proFessional theatre to emerge from the early modern period. Even more significantly, it is ‘the only contemporary complete text we have – by an early modern actor about early modern actors’ (Griffith 191). This is rather surprising considering how famous playwrights and drama of that period have become, but it is revealing of attitudes towards the profession and the stage at the turn of the sixteenth century. Religious concerns Formed a central part of the heated public debate which contested the social value oF proFessional drama during the early modern era. Claims against the literary status of work produced for the commercial stage were also frequently levelled against the theatre from within the establishment, a prominent example being Sir Philip Sidney’s Defence of Poesie (written c. 1579, published 1595). Considering Heywood’s Apology in relation to Sidney’s Defence, and thinking particularly about the ways these treatises appropriate the classical idea oF mimesis and the consequent social value of literature, gives fresh insight into the changing status of drama in Shakespeare’s lifetime and how attitudes towards commercial theatre developed between the 1570s and 1610s. The following article explores these ideas within the framework of the London in which Heywood and his acting company lived and worked. -
The Summons of Death on the Medieval and Renaissance English Stage
The Summons of Death on the Medieval and Renaissance English Stage The Summons of Death on the Medieval and Renaissance English Stage Phoebe S. Spinrad Ohio State University Press Columbus Copyright© 1987 by the Ohio State University Press. All rights reserved. A shorter version of chapter 4 appeared, along with part of chapter 2, as "The Last Temptation of Everyman, in Philological Quarterly 64 (1985): 185-94. Chapter 8 originally appeared as "Measure for Measure and the Art of Not Dying," in Texas Studies in Literature and Language 26 (1984): 74-93. Parts of Chapter 9 are adapted from m y "Coping with Uncertainty in The Duchess of Malfi," in Explorations in Renaissance Culture 6 (1980): 47-63. A shorter version of chapter 10 appeared as "Memento Mockery: Some Skulls on the Renaissance Stage," in Explorations in Renaissance Culture 10 (1984): 1-11. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Spinrad, Phoebe S. The summons of death on the medieval and Renaissance English stage. Bibliography: p. Includes index. 1. English drama—Early modern and Elizabethan, 1500-1700—History and criticism. 2. English drama— To 1500—History and criticism. 3. Death in literature. 4. Death- History. I. Title. PR658.D4S64 1987 822'.009'354 87-5487 ISBN 0-8142-0443-0 To Karl Snyder and Marjorie Lewis without who m none of this would have been Contents Preface ix I Death Takes a Grisly Shape Medieval and Renaissance Iconography 1 II Answering the Summon s The Art of Dying 27 III Death Takes to the Stage The Mystery Cycles and Early Moralities 50 IV Death -
Actes Des Congrès De La Société Française Shakespeare, 33 | 2015 Middleton Beyond the Canon 2
Actes des congrès de la Société française Shakespeare 33 | 2015 Shakespeare 450 Middleton beyond the Canon Daniela Guardamagna Electronic version URL: http://journals.openedition.org/shakespeare/3394 DOI: 10.4000/shakespeare.3394 ISSN: 2271-6424 Publisher Société Française Shakespeare Electronic reference Daniela Guardamagna, « Middleton beyond the Canon », Actes des congrès de la Société française Shakespeare [Online], 33 | 2015, Online since 10 October 2015, connection on 08 June 2020. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/shakespeare/3394 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/shakespeare.3394 This text was automatically generated on 8 June 2020. © SFS Middleton beyond the Canon 1 Middleton beyond the Canon Daniela Guardamagna 1 The old canon of Thomas Middleton1 has been deeply modified in the last forty years by attribution studies, by the analysis of philologists and the work of MacDonald P. Jackson, David Lake and Roger Holdsworth,2 and especially after the issue of what has been defined as “Middleton’s First Folio”, that is his Collected Works and Textual Companion, edited by Gary Taylor and John Lavagnino.3 2 Critics are now aware that there are many clues hinting at the fact that the ‘new Middleton’ is very different from the author that was proposed till the last decades of the 20th century, that is the cold, misogynist, clinical analyst of the society around him (“a 17th-century Ibsen or Zola”, as he was defined4), and that the new figure presents striking features which greatly modify our perception of his work. 3 In this paper I will concentrate on a specific instance concerning the new canon: the modification of female characters that becomes apparent in Middleton’s writing, considering the new plays, the tragedies in particular, that have been definitely attributed to him in the 2007 Collected Works. -
The Dramaturgy of Thomas Heywood 1594-1613 Carson, R
The dramaturgy of Thomas Heywood 1594-1613 Carson, R. Neil The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without the prior written consent of the author For additional information about this publication click this link. http://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/jspui/handle/123456789/1390 Information about this research object was correct at the time of download; we occasionally make corrections to records, please therefore check the published record when citing. For more information contact [email protected] THE DRAMATURGYOF THOMAS HEYWOOD 1594-1613 THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR JANUARY, 1974 OF PHILOSOPHY IN THE R. NEIL CARSON UNIVERSITY OF LONDON WESTFIELD COLLEGE I)IN 1 ABSTRACT This dissertation is an attempt to describe the characteristics of Thomas Heywood's dramatic style. The study is divided into three parts. The first deals with the playwright's theatrical career and discusses how his practical experience as actor and sharer might have affected his technique as a dramatic writer. The second part defines the scope of the investigation and contains the bulk of the analysis of Heywood's plays. My approach to the mechanics of playwriting is both practical and theoretical. I have attempted to come to an understanding of the technicalities of Heywood's craftsmanship by studying the changes he made in Sir Thomas Moore and in the sources he used for his plays. At the same time, I have tried to comprehend the aesthetic framework within which he worked by referring to the critical ideas of the period and especially to opinions expressed by Heywood him- self in An Apology for Actors and elsewhere. -
English 9127B: Performance Conditions in Shakespeare’S Time Wednesdays 12:30-3:30 Weldon Library 257
THE UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN ONTARIO Department of English http://www.uwo.ca/english English 9127B: Performance Conditions in Shakespeare’s Time Wednesdays 12:30-3:30 Weldon Library 257 Dr M.J. Kidnie AHB 0N05 x85830 [email protected] Description: This course focuses on the creation and staging of professional theatre in the age of Shakespeare. Students will study architectural evidence of performance spaces and consider how these spaces might have been put to use in practice, they will be introduced to practical theatrical concerns such as company organisation, payments for scripts, theatrical collaboration, rehearsal, and censorship, and they will examine and discuss surviving textual evidence of the revision and transmission of dramatic manuscripts through to performance. 6 January Introduction to the course Plus seminar assignments. 13 January Early modern stages Dramatists and actors had a shared understanding of the theatres in which their plays would be performed, and the opportunities these spaces provided. This week we’ll explore the stage space of the outdoor amphitheatres in terms of live performance. Tiffany Stern, “Text, Playhouse and London,” Making Shakespeare (Routledge, 2004): 6-33 *Peter Thomson, “Playhouses and Players,” Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare Studies, ed. Stanley Wells (Cambridge, 1986), pp. 67-83 *Andrew Gurr, ‘The Staging’, The Shakespearean Stage, 1574-1642, 3rd ed. (Cambridge, 1992), pp. 172-211 *Peter Stallybrass, “Properties in Clothes: The Materials of the Renaissance Theatre,” Staged Properties in Early Modern English Drama, ed. Jonathan Gil Harris and Natasha Korda (Cambridge UP, 2002): 177- 201 *Shakespeare’s Globe: A Theatrical Experiment, ed. Christie Carson and Farah Karim-Cooper (Cambridge UP, 2008) – select essays 20 January Thomas Heywood, A Woman Killed with Kindness Heywood was a contemporary of Shakespeare, and one of the most prolific playwrights of the age – he claimed to have a “hand or main finger” in 220 plays. -
The Economics of Gender Relations in London City Comedy
THE ECONOMICS OF GENDER RELATIONS IN LONDON CITY COMEDY BY KRISTIN WEISSE A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS English May, 2015 Winston-Salem, North Carolina Approved By: Sarah Hogan, Ph.D., Advisor Olga Valbuena, Ph.D., Chair Susan Harlan, Ph.D. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to thank Dr. Hogan— not only for her helpful input and guidance throughout the process of writing this thesis, but also for inspiring my interest in Elizabethan and Jacobean literature through her remarkable energy and enthusiasm. In addition, a special thanks to Dr. Harlan and Dr. Valbuena, whose Renaissance drama classes further solidified my desire to research London city comedy and whose suggestions were also integral to the completion of this project. I am immensely grateful to have had the opportunity to work with such an intelligent and lively group of women. Moreover, I would like to thank my friends and teammates for their constant love and encouragement throughout my entire time as a graduate student at Wake Forest. Thank you especially to my “soulmates” Lizzie and Kelly for the endless trips to Camino (which made thesis writing so much more enjoyable), the ice cream dates, the epic road-trips, and for always being there for me to lean on and to learn from. Thank you also to Sam, Kaitlyn, Kathleen, Aubrey, and Chandler for the constant motivation both intellectually and physically (whether out on the trails, on the track, or even just lounging around the kitchen of 1022 Polo), and for the much-needed distractions from writing and reading. -
Telling, Showing and Interpreting Mad Discourse in Renaissance Drama », « Theta XI, Théâtre Tudor », 2013, Pp
Marie-Hélène Besnault, « Telling, Showing and Interpreting Mad Discourse in Renaissance Drama », « Theta XI, Théâtre Tudor », 2013, pp. 41-62 mis en ligne en septembre 2014, <https://sceneeuropeenne.univ-tours.fr/theta/theta11>. Theta XI est publié par le Centre d’Études Supérieures de la Renaissance, dirigé par Philippe Vendrix, Université François-Rabelais de Tours, CNRS/UMR 7323 Responsable scientifique Richard Hillman Mentions légales Copyright © 2014 – CESR. Tous droits réservés. Les utilisateurs peuvent télécharger et imprimer, pour un usage strictement privé, cette unité documentaire. Reproduction soumise à autorisation. Date de création septembre 2014 Theta XI – Théâtre Tudor Marie-Hélène BESNAULT pp. 41-62 CESR, Tours Telling, Showing and Interpreting Mad Discourse in Renaissance Drama Marie-Hélène Besnault Université François-Rabelais de Tours/CESR-CNRS n both Christopher Marlowe’s Tamburlaine the Great, Part One, and Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy, the plays which made Itheir authors famous in the late 1580s, mad discourse is pre- sent, to a lesser extent in the first case, and more so in the sec- ond. Such discourse must have proved very popular, since Hieronimo’s mad speeches received five anonymous addi- tions in 1602, after Kyd’s death, and after the appearance of other memorable mad scenes in the plays of Shakespeare and his fellow dramatists. By the closing of the theatres in 1642, many more mad scenes, which were often not present in the sources of the playwrights, came to be written. Mad- ness was given both comic and tragic treatments in plays intended for performance by professional male actors or trained young choristers, and intended for a paying audi- ence in a public theatre. -
Sexual Disguise and Social Mobility in Jacobean City Comedy
2 Sexual Disguise and Social Mobility in Jacobean City Comedy In its representation oflove and sexuality, Elizabethan romantic comedy is not concerned with the problematic enactment of social and sexual roles in the institution of marriage. Rather, it concen trates on the complexities of eras, dramatized as sexual desire seek ing and finding fulfillment in the heroes' successful resolution of the process of courtship. In contrast, Jacobean city comedy brings into the light of representation precisely those dissociations and contradictions in English Renaissance sexual ideology which ro mantic comedy evokes but seeks to reconcile and contain. 1 Jaco bean satire, or city comedy, is a genre designed to dramatize the complex process of conducting economic and social relations in a newly forming urban environment. As is well known, city com edy as such began in the late 1590s with Ben Jonson's humor plays, achieved recognizable generic conventions by about 1605, and thrived during, roughly, the first decade of the seventeenth cen tury, when dramatists perceived the city of London as the setting in which those conflicts caused by the political, religious, and eco nomic upheavals that transformed Renaissance England were being enacted most intensely.2 I. See Louis Adrian Montrose, "'Shaping Fantasies': Figurations of Gender and Power in Elizabethan Culture, " Representations, 1 (Spring 1983), 61-94; and Jonathan Dollimore, "Subjectivity, Sexuality, and Transgression: The Jacobean Connection," Renaissance Drama, N.S. 17 (1986), 53-81. -
Appendix the Queen Or the Excellency of Her Sex
Appendix The Queen or The Excellency of her Sex HISTORY OF THE PLAY The Queen was published anonymously in 1653 and remained anonymous until1906 when Professor W. Bang edited the play and attributed it to Ford. Sherman in 1908, H. Dugdale Sykes in 1924 and Joan Sargeaunt in 1935 were all in agreement.' More recent I y Professor H. J. 0 liver in 1955 and Professor O.K. Anderson Jr. in 1972 both confirm Bang's opinion and most scholars would now attribute the play in its entirety to Ford.2 MAJOR THEMES The theme underlying the main plot is the cure of misogyny by arousing jealous suspicions in order to stimulate sexual attraction. This therapeutic idea has been attributed to the influence of Burtonian psychology. The subject is Alphonso, sentenced to death for rebellion but pardoned and married to the Queen, whose sex, however, he abhors. The agent is his counsellor Muretto who, by dropping into his master's mind suspicions of the Queen's relations with the young lord Petruchi, rouses him to a fury of sexual jealousy. Out of this theme three others develop. First is the trial of love, for the Queen endures with fortitude Alphonso's refusal to accept her as a wife and his subsequent accusation of unchastity. Second is the theme of honour; the Queen remains entirely loyal to her husband and also to her responsibilities towards her subjects, for she will allow none of them to risk life and limb by taking up the challenge of her cause. The theme of honour recurs in the secondary plot in Velasco's unwillingness to break the oath which he has sworn to the imperious Salassa even when she frees him from it.