DOCSLIB.ORG

True and Home-Born: Domestic Tragedy on the Early Modern English Stage

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
True and Home-Born: Domestic Tragedy on the Early Modern English Stage True and Home-Born: Domestic Tragedy on the Early Modern English Stage Frederick Kaj Olof Bengtsson Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2014 © 2014 Frederick Kaj Olof Bengtsson All rights reserved Abstract True and Home-Born: Domestic Tragedy on the Early Modern English Stage Frederick Bengtsson “True and Home-Born” intervenes in critical debates about early modern domestic tragedy, arguing that—far from being a form concerned exclusively with moral admonition or the domestic sphere—it is a centrally important site for dramatic experimentation and theorization at a key moment in England’s evolving theatrical culture. Encompassing texts such as Arden of Faversham (1592), A Warning for Fair Women (1599), and A Woman Killed with Kindness (1607), the term groups plays that share an interest in “ordinary,” nonaristocratic life, dramatize domestic events of a sensational and violent nature, and stage detailed and accurate representations of household settings and domestic ideology. While domestic tragedy has a significant forty-year theatrical history—comparable to the early modern revenge tragedy—and is associated with prominent dramatists such as Thomas Heywood, John Ford, and William Shakespeare, these plays continue to be regarded as marginal dramatic texts, mainly of interest as archives of early modern domestic ideology and experience. I argue, in contrast, that domestic tragedies represent a key strand in the development of English tragic drama. Their heightened reflexivity about their dramatic and tragic form suggests a deep and abiding interest in dramatic and theatrical matters: in how drama creates verisimilitude, how it represents “truth,” and how it imagines and participates in a new, native, and national theatrical culture. The first half of “True and Home-Born” focuses on a number of plays traditionally identified as domestic tragedies, showing that their interests are not confined to the household, but extend to the dramatic and theatrical implications of faithfully recreating the reality of domestic experience on stage. Heywood and Shakespeare, I suggest, are particularly attuned to these implications, and develop and critique a form of theatrical verisimilitude in their respective engagements with the form. In the second half, I suggest that the subgenre’s boundaries are more permeable than previous criticism has allowed. By considering both the revenge tragedy and history play subgenres in terms of the domestic, I show the extent to which domestic tragedy was fully imbricated in the period’s dramatic traditions and theatrical culture. The revenge tragedies of Thomas Kyd and Shakespeare, I argue, turn to the household as a site in which to imagine a new form of revenge drama that differs from its classical forebears and is thus suited to the English stage. Finally, I contend that in a group of historical dramas that I call the “British history plays,” focused on historical events set in ancient Britain, the domestic sphere becomes central to the staging of history, offering early modern historical dramatists a means of bridging the gap between ancient past and early modern present. Contents Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................................................. ii Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................... 1 “Thus have you seen the truth”: Tragedy and Truth on the Early Modern Stage ...................................... 36 Veracity and Verisimilitude in A Woman Killed with Kindness and Othello ............................................... 86 “Strange plots of dire revenge”: ‘Domesticating’ Revenge for the English Stage ........................................ 131 Domestic Histories of Ancient Britain ............................................................................................................. 178 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................................................ 232 i Acknowledgements This dissertation—and these thanks—have been a long time coming, but here they finally are. First and foremost, my mentor Jean Howard, for whom there are almost no words and without whom there probably would not have been any—thank you for your unfailing support, unwavering enthusiasm, and your kindness and friendship. Julie Crawford and Molly Murray have been stimulating interlocutors, incisive readers, patient advisers, and good friends. Working with you, my committee of committees, has been both a pleasure and a privilege. To all those at Columbia who eased the way, thank you. Alan Stewart’s ever-calming, ever-patient presence and his ever-thoughtful advice have been a boon to my graduate school existence. Nicole Wallack has always been incredibly supportive, insightful, and generous. Over the years, the members of the early modern dissertation seminar have been a wonderfully companionable community, and an insightful one. Fellow travellers through graduate school, old and new, have provided both intellectual stimulation and intellectual respite whenever and wherever needed. Alice Boone, Marina Graham, Musa Gurnis, Ruth and Ean Lexton, Katja Lindskog, Sara Murphy, Nick Osborne, Christine Varnado—the long years seemed much shorter thanks to you all. Mary Kate Hurley—your friendship and generosity have been indispensable. Lynn Festa, who set me on this path years ago, and made me a better thinker along the way—having you as a guide, a mentor, and a friend has always smoothed a long and sometimes rough journey. Denis, who was there for the first time around, and the second—thank you always for your friendship, brother. Emily, who is here for the third time around, and who I met when it began—you know my ideas better than I do, and make them sound better than I could. Thank you for your thoughts, for my words, and for our story. My parents, who gave me everything, and then some—you made me feel like I could do anything and be anyone. For your unstinting generosity and unwavering belief in me, thank you. Last but never least, Stephanie, my dearest sister and my oldest friend. You always told me—and never doubted—that I would finally get here, and here I am. Thank you for everything. ii To Emily To my parents To my sister iii Introduction TRUE AND HOME- B ORN: D OMESTIC TRAGEDY ON THE E ARLY M ODERN E NGLISH S TAGE Arden of Faversham (1592),1 perhaps the best-known early modern domestic tragedy, ends with a dramaturgical apology: Gentlemen, we hope you’ll pardon this naked tragedy Wherein no filèd points are foisted in To make it gracious to the ear or eye; For simple truth is gracious enough And needs no other points of glozing stuff. (Epilogue 14–18)2 This epilogue is no meek apology, but rather a bold statement about the true nature of tragedy, which makes a case for Arden as something new, something different. Franklin, friend of the murdered Arden, here entreats the audience to excuse the simplicity of the play just ended, this unconventional “naked tragedy” that lacks the usual rhetorical ornament to make it “gracious to the ear or eye.” Initially deferential, by the end he confidently asserts that the more profound grace of “simple truth” should compensate for this lack of ornament, implicitly distancing this new form of tragedy from traditional understandings of the genre, which associated it with the highly wrought rhetoric of the Roman dramatist Seneca and other classical influences. The passage’s double registers of meaning emphasize the superficiality of rhetorical ornament: the “filèd points” not only refer to polished or elaborated rhetoric, 1 Arden was entered into the Stationers’ Register on 3 April 1592, and printed later that year. Since the main source for the plot is the 1587 edition of Holinshed’s Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland, the play is usually dated 1587–91. Here and throughout the dissertation, parenthetical dates refer to the first printing, unless otherwise specified. Where printings have been shown to occur much later, an estimated date of performance or composition (preceded by ‘c.’) will be given. 2 The Tragedy of Master Arden of Faversham, ed. M. L. Wine (London: Methuen, 1973). All references are to this edition, unless otherwise noted. 1 but to fine lace, while “glozing stuff” is both specious or flattering rhetoric and gaudy or gleaming fabric.3 Arden, in other words, wears homely (plain and English) attire rather than needlessly decorative, foreign garb. Arden might lack those qualities that make it appealing to the senses, or “gracious to the ear or eye.” But in the repetition of “gracious” on the very next line, the graciousness of rhetoric is outweighed by the grace of truth: “For simple truth is gracious enough.” Simplicity, like nakedness, plays on a sense of being unadorned or without ornament. Arden’s truth is free of rhetorical ornament because the play itself is. Simplicity also calls to mind straightforwardness, and a “simple truth” is thus not just a truth free of ornament, but a truth easily apprehended, easily digested, easily recalled.4 Arden is a “naked tragedy” on several levels: potentially deficient or inadequate, as Franklin (disingenuously) suggests; devoid of rhetorical ornament or frills; and—through the
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Irish English in Early Modern Drama: the Birth of a Linguistic Stereotype
    Irish English in early modern drama: The birth of a linguistic stereotype Raymond Hickey University of Duisburg-Essen A number of dramatic texts are scrutinised here for the linguistic analysis of Irish English in the early modern period. A broad range of different plays by authors from the late sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries are examined to determine if the non-standard spellings contained in these texts reflect genuine features of spoken Irish English at the time of writing. The analysis shows that some of the features which the textual record reveals have disappeared entirely while others have been confined to specific varieties in certain phonotactic environments while yet others persist in general Irish English today. The texts considered are furthermore useful when determining the earliest attestations for known features of Irish English. 1. Introduction At the very end of the sixteenth and throughout the seventeenth centuries, English authors began to produce dramas which contained portrayals of non-English individuals. These portrayals are generally negative, satirising individuals who were regarded as less cultivated than the English of the time with whom they were implicitly contrasted. Such writing is connected in no small part to Elizabethan and Jacobean notions of the value of English culture and the lower cultural status attached to those outside England. Elizabethan satire also rests on the notion of ‘Four Nations’ – England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland – and in particular uses characters from Scotland and Ireland in order to provide comic relief within English plays. Among the earliest writers to do this is Shakespeare in Henry V. In this play he created four characters, officers in the king’s army, and contrasted their personalities and speech in the Four Nations scene.
    [Show full text]
  • THE KINGS and QUEENS of BRITAIN, PART I (From Geoffrey of Monmouth’S Historia Regum Britanniae, Tr
    THE KINGS AND QUEENS OF BRITAIN, PART I (from Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regum Britanniae, tr. Lewis Thorpe) See also Bill Cooper’s extended version (incorporating details given by Nennius’s history and old Welsh texts, and adding hypothesised dates for each monarch, as explained here). See also the various parallel versions of the Arthurian section. Aeneas │ Ascanius │ Silvius = Lavinia’s niece │ Corineus (in Cornwall) Brutus = Ignoge, dtr of Pandrasus │ ┌─────────────┴─┬───────────────┐ Gwendolen = Locrinus Kamber (in Wales) Albanactus (in Scotland) │ └Habren, by Estrildis Maddan ┌──┴──┐ Mempricius Malin │ Ebraucus │ 30 dtrs and 20 sons incl. Brutus Greenshield └Leil └Rud Hud Hudibras └Bladud │ Leir ┌────────────────┴┬──────────────┐ Goneril Regan Cordelia = Maglaurus of Albany = Henwinus of Cornwall = Aganippus of the Franks │ │ Marganus Cunedagius │ Rivallo ┌──┴──┐ Gurgustius (anon) │ │ Sisillius Jago │ Kimarcus │ Gorboduc = Judon ┌──┴──┐ Ferrex Porrex Cloten of Cornwall┐ Dunvallo Molmutius = Tonuuenna ┌──┴──┐ Belinus Brennius = dtr of Elsingius of Norway Gurguit Barbtruc┘ = dtr of Segnius of the Allobroges └Guithelin = Marcia Sisillius┘ ┌┴────┐ Kinarius Danius = Tanguesteaia Morvidus┘ ┌──────┬────┴─┬──────┬──────┐ Gorbonianus Archgallo Elidurus Ingenius Peredurus │ ┌──┴──┐ │ │ │ (anon) Marganus Enniaunus │ Idvallo Runo Gerennus Catellus┘ Millus┘ Porrex┘ Cherin┘ ┌─────┴─┬───────┐ Fulgenius Edadus Andragius Eliud┘ Cledaucus┘ Clotenus┘ Gurgintius┘ Merianus┘ Bledudo┘ Cap┘ Oenus┘ Sisillius┘ ┌──┴──┐ Bledgabred Archmail └Redon └Redechius
    [Show full text]
  • The Influence of Seneca on 1934) Pp. 33-54; Philip Edwards, Thomas Kyd
    Notes CHAPTER ONE. COMMON ELEMENTS I. For Senecan influence, see John W. Cunliffe, The Influence of Seneca on Elizabethan Tragedy (London: Macmillan, 1893); F. L. Lucas, Seneca and Elizabethan Tragedy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1922); T. S. Eliot, 'Shakespeare and the Stoicism of Seneca', in Elizabethan Essays (London: Faber, 1934) pp. 33-54; Philip Edwards, Thomas Kyd and Early Elizabethan Tragedy, Writers and their Work Series (London: Longmans, 1966) pp. 10-11. The importance of Senecan influence has been denied by Howard Baker in Induction to Tragedy: A Study in Development ofForm in •Gorboduc', 'The Spanish Tragedy' and 'Titus Andronicus' (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1939), and by George Hunter in 'Seneca and the Elizabethans: A Case Study in "Influence"', ShS, XX (1967) 17-26. 2. Sir Philip Sidney, An Apology for Poetry, ed. Geoffrey Shepherd (London: Nelson, 1965) p. 118. 3. John Foxe, Actes and Monuments (London, 1583). For a pictorial anthology of 'sundrye kindes ofTormentes' (including blinding), see pp. 794f. at the end ofvol. 1. A chained copy of this immensely popular work was made available in every cathedral, and regular public readings were prescribed by Church ordinance. 4. This meaning has not been recorded by the OED. For examples, see Chapman, Hero and Leander, Ill. 59-64,146; Middleton and Rowley, The Changeling, I.i.l91; Hamlet, v.ii.289-90. 5. Romeo and Juliet, II.vi.9-15; Othello, I.iii.341-2, u.i.219-20. 6. On the Greek attitude to change, see J. B. Bury, The Idea ofProgress (London: Macmillan, 1932) pp.
    [Show full text]
  • Robert Greene and the Theatrical Vocabulary of the Early 1590S Alan
    Robert Greene and the Theatrical Vocabulary of the Early 1590s Alan C. Dessen [Writing Robert Greene: Essays on England’s First Notorious Professional Writer, ed. Kirk Melnikoff and Edward Gieskes (Aldershot and Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2008), pp. 25-37.\ Here is a familiar tale found in literary handbooks for much of the twentieth century. Once upon a time in the 1560s and 1570s (the boyhoods of Marlowe, Shakespeare, and Jonson) English drama was in a deplorable state characterized by fourteener couplets, allegory, the heavy hand of didacticism, and touring troupes of players with limited numbers and resources. A first breakthrough came with the building of the first permanent playhouses in the London area in 1576- 77 (The Theatre, The Curtain)--hence an opportunity for stable groups to form so as to develop a repertory of plays and an audience. A decade later the University Wits came down to bring their learning and sophistication to the London desert, so that the heavyhandedness and primitive skills of early 1580s playwrights such as Robert Wilson and predecessors such as Thomas Lupton, George Wapull, and William Wager were superseded by the artistry of Marlowe, Kyd, and Greene. The introduction of blank verse and the suppression of allegory and onstage sermons yielded what Willard Thorp billed in 1928 as "the triumph of realism."1 Theatre and drama historians have picked away at some of these details (in particular, 1576 has lost some of its luster or uniqueness), but the narrative of the University Wits' resuscitation of a moribund English drama has retained its status as received truth.
    [Show full text]
  • The Tragedy of Hamlet
    THE TRAGEDY OF HAMLET THE WORKS OF SHAKESPEARE THE TRAGEDY OF HAMLET EDITED BY EDWARD DOWDEN n METHUEN AND CO. 36 ESSEX STREET: STRAND LONDON 1899 9 5 7 7 95 —— CONTENTS PAGE Introduction ix The Tragedy of Hamlet i Appendix I. The "Travelling" of the Players. 229 Appendix II.— Some Passages from the Quarto of 1603 231 Appendix III. Addenda 235 INTRODUCTION This edition of Hamlet aims in the first place at giving a trustworthy text. Secondly, it attempts to exhibit the variations from that text which are found in the primary sources—the Quarto of 1604 and the Folio of 1623 — in so far as those variations are of importance towards the ascertainment of the text. Every variation is not recorded, but I have chosen to err on the side of excess rather than on that of defect. Readings from the Quarto of 1603 are occa- sionally given, and also from the later Quartos and Folios, but to record such readings is not a part of the design of this edition. 1 The letter Q means Quarto 604 ; F means Folio 1623. The dates of the later Quartos are as follows: —Q 3, 1605 161 1 undated 6, For ; Q 4, ; Q 5, ; Q 1637. my few references to these later Quartos I have trusted the Cambridge Shakespeare and Furness's edition of Hamlet. Thirdly, it gives explanatory notes. Here it is inevitable that my task should in the main be that of selection and condensation. But, gleaning after the gleaners, I have perhaps brought together a slender sheaf.
    [Show full text]
  • Cordelia''s Portrait in the Context of King Lear''s
    Paula M. Rodríguez Gómez Cordelias Portrait in the Context of King Lears... 181 CORDELIAS PORTRAIT IN THE CONTEXT OF KING LEARS INDIVIDUATION* Paula M. Rodríguez Gómez** Abstract: This analysis attempts to show the relations between the individual psyche and the contents of the collective unconscious. Following Von Franzs analytical technique, the tragic action in King Lear will be read as an individuation process that will rescue archetypal contents and solve existential paradoxes that cause an imbalance between the ego and the self, leading to self-destruction. Once communication is eased and balance is restored, the transformation-seeking process that engaged the design of the play itself becomes resolved, and events can be led to a conventional tragic resolution. Jungian analysis will therefore provide a critical framework to unveil the subconscious contents that tear the character of the king between annihilation and survival, the anima complex that affects the king, responding thus for the action of the play and its centuries-old success. Keywords: collective unconscious, myth, individuation, archetype, tragedy, anima. Resumen: Este análisis pretende sacar a la luz las relaciones entre la psyche individual y los contenidos del inconsciente colectivo. Siguiendo la técnica analítica de Von Franz, la acción trágica de King Lear será entendida a través del proceso de individuación que revierte sobre los contenidos arquetípicos y resuelve las paradojas existenciales que cau- san el desequilibrio entre ego y self. Una vez que la comunicación es facilitada y el equilibrio psíquico recuperado, el proceso transformativo que afecta la génesis de la trama se resuelve y el argumento alcanza una resolución convencional.
    [Show full text]
  • Arden of Faversham, Shakespearean Authorship, and 'The Print of Many'
    Chapter 9 Arden of Faversham, Shakespearean Authorship, and 'The Print of Many' JACK ELLIOTT AND BRETT GREATLEY-HIRSCH he butchered body of Thomas Arden is found in the field behind the Abbey. After reporting Tthis discovery to Arden's wife, Franklin surveys the circumstantial evidence of footprints in the snow and blood at the scene: I fear me he was murdered in this house And carried to the fields, for from that place Backwards and forwards may you see The print of many feet within the snow. And look about this chamber where we are, And you shall find part of his guiltless blood; For in his slip-shoe did I find some rushes, Which argueth he was murdered in this room. (14.388-95) Although The Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland by Raphael Holinshed and his editors records the identities and fates of Arden's murderers in meticulous detail (Holinshed 1587, 4M4r-4M6v; 1587, 5K1v-5K3v), those responsible for composing the dramatization of this tragic episode remain unknown. We know that the bookseller Edward White entered The Lamentable and True Tragedy ofArden ofFaversham in Kent into the Stationers' Register on 3 April 1592 (Arber 1875-94, 2: 607 ), and we believe, on the basis of typographical evidence, that Edward Allde printed the playbook later that year ( STC 733). We know that Abel Jeffes also printed an illicit edition of the playbook, as outlined in disciplinary proceedings brought against him and White in a Stationers' Court record dated 18 December 1592 (Greg and Boswell 1930, 44). No copies of this pirate edition survive, but it is assumed to have merely been a reprint of White's; Jeffes was imprisoned on 7 August 1592, so his edition must have appeared prior to this date.
    [Show full text]
  • ROMANTIC CRITICISM of SHAKESPEARIAN DRAMA By
    ROMANTIC CRITICISM OF SHAKESPEARIAN DRAMA By JOHN g,RAWFORD Associate of Arts Texarkana College Texarkana, Texas 1956 Bachelor of Science in Education Ouachita Baptist University Arkadelphia, Arkansas 1959 Master of Science in Education Drake University Des Moines, Iowa 1962 Submitted to the faculty of .the Graduate College of the Oklahoma State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF EDUCATION May, 1968 OKLAHOMA STATE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY OCT 24 1968 ROMANTIC CRITICISM OF SHAKESPEARIAN DRAMA Thesis Approved: Thesis Adviser \ f ,A .. < \ Dean of the Graduate College ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I should like to· thank anumber·of people who helped me in many different ways during· the·preparation· of .this dissertation, notably Dr. David· S. Berkeley,·major adviser, who-lent words of encouragement, guidance, understanding, and patience; but also my committee members, Dr. Darrel Ray·, Pr~ Judson Milburn, and· .Dr~- Loyd Douglas; and. the Oklahoma State University library staff, especially Miss Helen Donart and Mrs • .:fosephine Monk. iii TABLE-OF CONTENTS Chap tel' Page. I. INTRODUCTION •••• 1 II. HAMLET .••• . ' . .. ... 29 III. ANTONY -~ CLEOPATRA • • • • . • • . • • • It • . • • . • .• • a1 ·IV. HENRYV· . ,. ". .• . 122 V. THE· MERCHANT ·QE. VENICE .- . "' . 153 VI. CONCLUSION • • ' . -. ,. 187 BIBLIOGRAPHY • • • • · • . .. 191 iv CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Of all the so-called schools of Shakespearian criticism, the Romantic has been and continues to be one of the most influential. Per- haps this is true merely because of the impor~ance which the Romantic School places upon the genius of the subj~ct, for all schools of criti- cism recognize Shakespeare's ability at creating effective drama. A more accurate answer, however, probably lies in the fact that "romanti- cism" has a broad base and encompasses so very much.
    [Show full text]
  • Revenge Tragedy and Identity
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by University of Birmingham Research Archive, E-theses Repository REVENGE TRAGEDY AND IDENTITY NURUL FARHANA LOW BT. ABDULLAH (293498) A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Arts of The University of Birmingham for the degree of Master of Philosophy (B) Contemporary Critical Theory Department of English Faculty of Arts The University of Birmingham September 1999 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. ABSTRACT This thesis attempts a reading of Revenge Tragedy using concepts found in Psychoanalytic theory to explore the idea of identity formation. Revenge tragedy was a popular form of drama in the Jacobean period, although the first revenge play, The Spanish Tragedy was written before the end of the sixteenth century. Revenge tragedies feature an individual who takes private action for a crime committed against a loved one, usually because he/she is denied legitimate justice. This type of drama is said to reflect the anxieties of its age, one of which is the question of identity.
    [Show full text]
  • CYMBELINE" in the Fllii^Slhi TI CENTURY
    "CYMBELINE" IN THE fllii^SLHi TI CENTURY Bennett Jackson Submitted in partial fulfilment for the de ree of uaster of Arts in the University of Birmingham. October 1971. 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 This thesis consists of an Introduction, followed by Part I (chapters 1-2) in which nineteenth- century criticism of the play is discussed, particular attention being paid to Helen Faucit's essay on Imogen, and its relationship to her playing of the role. In Part II the stags-history of Oymbcline in London is traced from 1785 to Irving's Lyceum production of 1896. Directions from promptbooks used by G-.P. Cooke, W.C. Macready, Helen Eaucit, and Samuel ±helps are transcribed and discussed, and in the last chapter the influence of Bernard Shaw on Ellen Terry's Imogen is considered in the light of their correspondence and the actress's rehearsal copies of the play. There are three appendices: a list of performances; transcriptions of two newspaper reviews (from 1843 and 1864) and one private diary (Gordon Crosse's notes on the Lyceum Gymbeline); and discussion of one of the promptbooks prepared for Charles Kean's projected production.
    [Show full text]
  • Sources of Lear
    Meddling with Masterpieces: the On-going Adaptation of King Lear by Lynne Bradley B.A., Queen’s University 1997 M.A., Queen’s University 1998 A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in the Department of English © Lynne Bradley, 2008 University of Victoria All rights reserved. This dissertation may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photo-copying or other means, without the permission of the author. ii Meddling with Masterpieces: the On-going Adaptation of King Lear by Lynne Bradley B.A., Queen’s University 1997 M.A., Queen’s University 1998 Supervisory Committee Dr. Sheila M. Rabillard, Supervisor (Department of English) Dr. Janelle Jenstad, Departmental Member (Department of English) Dr. Michael Best, Departmental Member (Department of English) Dr. Annalee Lepp, Outside Member (Department of Women’s Studies) iii Supervisory Committee Dr. Sheila M. Rabillard, Supervisor (Department of English) Dr. Janelle Jenstad, Departmental Member (Department of English) Dr. Michael Best, Departmental Member (Department of English) Dr. Annalee Lepp, Outside Member (Department of Women’s Studies) Abstract The temptation to meddle with Shakespeare has proven irresistible to playwrights since the Restoration and has inspired some of the most reviled and most respected works of theatre. Nahum Tate’s tragic-comic King Lear (1681) was described as an execrable piece of dementation, but played on London stages for one hundred and fifty years. David Garrick was equally tempted to adapt King Lear in the eighteenth century, as were the burlesque playwrights of the nineteenth. In the twentieth century, the meddling continued with works like King Lear’s Wife (1913) by Gordon Bottomley and Dead Letters (1910) by Maurice Baring.
    [Show full text]
  • Hamlet and the Invention of Tragedy1
    Hamlet and the invention of Tragedy1 Helen Cooper UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, OXFORD The first thing that should be said about Hamlet is that he is a serial killer. He kills off a higher proportion of the speaking cast list, either directly with his own hand or indirectly, than any other Shakespearean character, including Richard III and Macbeth. To begin with, his victims include the entire Polonius family. He kills Polonius deliberately, though it is true that he believes him to be someone else at the time; but such an instance of mistaken identity, of killing B when one had set out with the intention of killing A, is not acceptable as an excuse for murder in a court of law. Laertes he kills with his own hand, though inadvertently; the text leaves open the opportunity, taken up in many productions, to have Hamlet engineer the change of swords deliberately as result of realizing that Laertes’ is unbated, but he cannot know that it is poisoned. Ophelia’s death he causes indirectly, but there can be no question but that he carries total moral responsibility for it, first tendering her affection, then proceeding through public humiliation to private violent abuse, and finally murdering her father. The First Quarto has Laertes make the double accusation of responsibility for the catastrophes to both Polonius and Ophelia explicit: Griefe upon griefe, my father murdered, My sister thus distracted: Cursed be his soule that wrought this wicked act.2 At no point, however, does Hamlet acknowledge his own role in bringing about her death, nor does he show any compunction over it.
    [Show full text]