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Competing Discourses of Love and Sexuality in the Relationships of Men and Women in Renaissance Drama

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Competing Discourses of Love and Sexuality in the Relationships of Men and Women in Renaissance Drama COMPETING DISCOURSES OF LOVE AND SEXUALITY IN THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN MEN AND WOMEN IN RENAISSANCE DRAMA SUE MARILYN KNOTT A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Arts of the University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of English Faculty of Arts, University of Birmingham March 1998 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. Synopsis Competing Discourses of Love and Sexuality in the Relationships of Men and Women in Renaissance Drama This thesis is an examination of the ways in which competing discourses of love and sexuality, ranging from the literary and philosophical to the religious, have influenced the portrayal of men and women in the drama of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. The structure of the thesis is in two parts: the first concerns what might be termed normative relationships, underlying which is the ideal of mutual affection in marriage, and the second, relationships which undermine, or challenge that ideal. My central proposition is that the conflict between the demands of the body and the spirit, rooted in the ascetic heritage of the Middle Ages, lies at the heart of all discourse on love and sexuality. This is demonstrated in the tension between the Petrarchan idealisation of love and women, and their denigration; between sublimation and sexual fulfilment. Underlying the idealism associated with love is the fear of disillusionment and betrayal, arising out of a deep-rooted association of sexuality with sin, which finds expression in anxiety about female sexuality. The playwrights dramatise these tensions, placing them in a context of changing values in which traditional views of morality come into conflict with a cynical acceptance of human frailty. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It would be impossible to name all those to whom I owe a debt of gratitude. First and foremost, to my immediate family, James and John who have lived through some of the trials and tribulations of this undertaking over the past few years, to my elder son, Paul, and to my mother, who is, sadly, unable to share the relief associated with its completion. Secondly, my gratitude is due to Martin Wiggins, who inspired my interest in the work of Shakespeare's contemporaries, not to mention Shakespeare himself, to Stanley Wells for his kindness and his encouragement, and to the ever- helpful librarians, Jim and Kate, and their predecessor, Susan Brock. My thanks are also due to the members of The Shakespeare Institute, so many of whom have offered their support and encouragement, in particular, to my M. A. colleague, Caroline Cakebread for her cheerful and positive outlook, to Ann Kaegi for warning me of some of the pitfalls, to Becky Owens for her sense of humour, and to Gene Giddens, for reading some of my work and helping me solve some of the mysteries of the Mac. Finally, to Jean Tinston, for her unfailing support through both family and academic crises. CONTENTS INTRODUCTION....... .......................................................................... 1 PART ONE: COURTSHIP AND MARRIAGE CHAPTER ONE: THE HEAVENLY RHETORIC OF HER EYE' i. 'If love, dear God, what is its quality? '................................................ 11 ii. 'It is man with whom we have always to do'................,...................... 15 iii. 'That I may be like a lover, and then I will sigh and die'................. 19 iv. 'Tis Hymen peoples every town'.......................................................... 24 v. 'Let us seek our own torments'.......................................................... 27 vi. 'Give me a lover, let the husband go'................................................. 33 CHAPTER TWO: 'TO LOVE EXTREAMELY PROCURETH EYTHER DEATH OR DANGER.' i. 'Man ought to beware of this Passion'................................................ 40 ii. 'Dangerous suspicion waits on our delight. '....................................... 50 iii. 'Let love-devouring death do what he dares'..................................... 54 iv. 'These violent delights have violent ends'......................................... 62 v. 'This is flesh and blood, sir' ................................................................ 71 CHAPTER THREE: 'A REMEDY AGAYNST SINNE? ' i. 'That men may live modestly with their wives'.. ...................................... 84 ii. 'Their chastity, that should be his alone'............................................... 91 Hi. 'An act which is so natural, just and necessary'................................ 97 iv. 'Do you ever think to find a chaste wife in these times ?'.................... 99 v. 'Hardto be disproved, lust's slanders are'....................................... 108 vi. 'Ha, that wives were of my metal'................................................... Ill CHAPTER FOUR: 'NO SINNE BUT A PASTIME?' i. 'The outrageous seas of adultery.'................................................... 119 ii. 'What labour is'tfor woman to keep constant?'............................. 125 iii. 'Is all this seeming gold plain copper?'.......................................... 132 iv. 'Such an appetite as I know damns me'.......................................... 135 v. 'O the unsounded sea of women's bloods'..................................... 143 vi 'O thou beguiler of man's easy trust'........................................... 148 PART TWO: SEDUCTION AND BETRAYAL CHAPTER FIVE: 'THE IMPUDENCE OF FLESH AND HELL'. i. 'I did not bid thee talk of Chastity'................................................... 153 ii 'Love's subject grows too threadbare nowadays.'.......................... 159 iii. 'It is our blood to err, though hellgap'd loud'............................. 167 iv. 'Am I the author of your sin?'....................................................... 178 v. 'A good whore had saved all this'.................................................... 183 CHAPTER SIX: 'LINES PARALLEL THAT NEVER MEET' i. 'Men having autoritie' and 'mirrors of rare chastitie '....................... 193 ii. 'Do what I can, no reason cools desire'.......................................... 199 iii. 'Dost thou desire her foully for those things that make her good? '... 203 iv. 'If thou dost live I must my honour lose'....................................... 212 v. 'Thou mayst enforce my body but not me'...................................... 214 CHAPTER SEVEN : 'THE WOMAN'S PART' i. 'A wretchedly carnal thing'.. ............................................................. 228 ii. 'Venus'sweete delights'.... ................................................................. 230 iii. 'A commodity will lose the gloss with lying'.................................... 235 iv. 'There's language in her eye'........................................................... 237 v. 'Must my life be made the world's example?'.................................. 240 vi. 'Theirfair, glozing countenance'...................................................... 258 vii. 'Thy black shame and my justice'..................................................... 270 viii. 'What have I gained from thee but infamy..'................................ 275 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................ 283 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................ 289 INTRODUCTION This thesis is an examination of the ways in which competing discourses of love and sexuality, ranging from the literary and philosophical to the religious, have influenced the portrayal of men and women in the drama of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. The discourses to which I refer are those which are employed to describe, discuss and regulate love and sexual behaviour. Predominant amongst them is the Petrarchan language of courtship, which seems to promote a different set of values to those of the moral and religious treatises of the time. My aim is to explore the way in which the tensions arising from these sources are reflected in the drama of the period. In my discussion I have taken a thematic approach, rather than adopting one of the more traditional and convenient methods of ordering material: by author, genre or chronology. These well-established approaches have their advantages but impose their own particular pattern from the outset. I have chosen, instead, to consider the patterns which emerge from the study of a sample which includes a range of author and genre, and which encompasses drama of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. The clearest pattern that arises is that of a repeated conflict between the demands of the body and the spirit, rooted in the ascetic heritage of the Middle Ages, and given renewed urgency by the demands of Protestantism on the individual conscience. This conflict, which is expressed in a questioning of the values of love in what is perceived to be a changing society, lies at the heart of all discourse on love and sexuality. The word love resists definition, then as now, but I have
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