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EVIDENCE AND EPISTEMOLOGY IN EARLY MODERN ENGLISH DRAMA A Dissertation by NICOLE E. HAGSTROM-SCHMIDT Submitted to the Office of Graduate and Professional Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Chair of Committee, Laura Estill Committee Members, Margaret J. M. Ezell Nandra Perry James Rosenheim Head of Department, Maura Ives August 2019 Major Subject: English Copyright 2019 Nicole Hagstrom-Schmidt ABSTRACT Evidence and Epistemology in Early Modern English Drama focuses on ways of knowing in a period before the disciplinary paradigms that we use today crystallized. Operating in a period of epistemological flux, writers in late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century England were faced with two competing knowledge systems: late Renaissance humanism from their schooling and early empiricism emerging in the works of Francis Bacon and others. Throughout their writing, commercial playwrights— Shakespeare, Jonson, and Middleton among them—attempted to work through these competing knowledge structures and presented spectacles using methods from both paradigms. These dramatists, I argue, adapt strategies of mixed method verification and use their dramatic art as the overarching mediating mode to unite oftentimes competing modes of knowledge. I first examine oral reporting in Hamlet as a dramatic tool that conveys information not only about the plot, but also the speaker’s ethos and reliability. I argue that Shakespeare exploits the convention of the anonymous messenger-character (or nuntius) to create a skeptical space wherein the murderer Claudius is ironically the most reliable reporter. Next, I contrast “ocular proof” in Othello with Middleton and Rowley’s The Changeling. In Othello, the visual is made verbal through ekphrastic and logical proofs as Iago offers rhetorical evidence of Desdemona’s infidelity that Othello internalizes as concrete. In The Changeling, the verbal becomes visual as Beatrice- Joanna embodies the expectations of virginity both in her speech and in fabricating the ii results of the virginity-revealing potions. Then, I posit that in Bartholomew Fair, Jonson uses Justice Overdo as a negative exemplum of the poor interpretative practices criticized in the play’s Induction. Blending the sensory, rhetorical, and historical modes of inquiry, I finally explore how Shakespeare translates methods of knowing the past into dramatic tools that present history as a dynamic continuum that simultaneously touches the past, present, future, and imaginative spaces in-between in 1-3 Henry VI and Richard III. Ultimately, this dissertation clarifies the historical context needed for comprehending how playgoers may have understood the transition between humanism and empiricism, and illustrates the methods playwrights used to negotiate this understanding. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I first want to thank my committee chair, Dr. Laura Estill for her ongoing guidance and support for this project and all my major projects whether in research, teaching, networking, or life, since 2014. Thank you to my committee members, Dr. Margaret Ezell, Dr. Nandra Perry, and Dr. Jim Rosenheim for your thoughtful insights and patience in engaging with my work. Without this powerhouse committee, this dissertation would not be where it is. Thanks also to my many other academic mentors, faculty, and staff at Truman State University, Western Illinois University, and Texas A&M University, who have supported me throughout undergraduate and graduate school. Especial thanks to Dr. Christopher Morrow, my thesis adviser at Western Illinois University who guided me to Renaissance drama in the first place. I wish to also acknowledge the professors who, in addition to all those listed above, impacted my scholarship: Dr. Christine Harker for challenging and encouraging me in my writing and study of early British literature; Dr. Rebecca Harrison for guiding me through Latin and classical literature; Dr. Arnold Preussner for igniting an ongoing love of Ben Jonson; Dr. Britt Mize for expanding my horizons in medieval and Old English literature, and providing me feedback on all things academic and professional; and Dr. Alanna Preussner, my very first English professor who kept me in the English major. Thank you all, and to all my teachers and mentors whom I did not mention. You have all made an impact on me as a writer, as a thinker, and as a teacher. iv I also want to extend my gratitude to the Folger Shakespeare Library. The Folger has been a part of my research life since attending an introductory seminar in 2015. Thank you to the Folger, their phenomenal librarians, and their equally phenomenal staff and donors for supporting that seminar and the 2017-2018 dissertation seminar. Especial thanks to Dr. Eric Jonson, the Director of Digital Access and Dr. Owen Williams, Associate Director for Scholarly Programs, for their continued engagement with me and all the Folger Seminar participants. Additional especial thanks to the directors of the seminars I attended, Dr. Alan Farmer, Dr. Peter Stallybrass, and Dr. Ann Blair. Thank you as well to my amazing cohorts, especially Beatrice Bradley, Thank you to the conveners and participants of my seminars at the Shakespeare Association of America conference in 2018 and 2019. In particular, I wish to acknowledge the impact of the heads of the seminars for their organization and thoughtful questions: Dr. Katherine Eggert, Dr. J. K. Barret, Dr. Lauren Robertson, and Dr. Anita Sherman. Thank you as well to Ani Govijan, Marc Jason Juberg, Evan Choate, and Dr. Alice Dailey for your insightful comments which especially aided in Chapters 2 and 5. Thank you to my dear friends and colleagues at Texas A&M for your critical insights and open offices. To my office bro, Fran Thielman, thank you for always listening to me and painstakingly going through whatever document I was working on with me for the occasional bowl of pho. To my early modern compatriot, Dr. Youmi Jung, thank you for being a better friend than I deserve and an amazing sounding board for any idea I had. To my other amazing friends, including (but never limited to) Dr. v Nigel Lepianka, Dr. Tommy Pfannkoch, Dr. Kathy Torabi, and Dr. Kate Ozment, for their unflinching kindness and advice. Also thank you to my friends not at Texas A&M for remaining by my side for far longer than advisable: my forever friend, Kayla Obert, and my original bro, Veronica Popp. Finally, thank you to my family. Thank you to my husband, Scott Schmidt, for following me to Texas, working to support us and our family, and being a great father to our children. Thank you to my offspring, Sofia and Theoden; this dissertation was completed despite their best efforts. Thank you to my parents, Joe and Michelle Hagstrom, for loving me despite not being entirely sure what I do all day. Thank you to my grandparents, Verne and Veronica Hagstrom, and Bob and Mary Paul, for always letting me know that you are proud and for always supporting my academic endeavors. Thank you to Justin and Li-Shen Schmidt, my father- and stepmother-in-law for encouraging education and health for me, my partner, and our children. And finally, thank you to my mother-in-law, Pat Figuli, the only one of all the people mentioned who will ever read this entire thing. vi NOMENCLATURE 1H6 1 Henry VI 2H6 2 Henry VI 3H6 3 Henry VI R3 Richard III vii CONTRIBUTORS AND FUNDING SOURCES Contributors This work was supported by a dissertation committee consisting of Professor Laura Estill, Professor Margaret J. M. Ezell, and Professor Nandra Perry of the Department of English, and Professor Jim Rosenheim of the Department of History. All work conducted for the dissertation was completed by the student independently. Funding Sources Graduate study was supported by a merit fellowship from Texas A&M University and assistantships through the Department of English and the World Shakespeare Bibliography. Additional support for dissertation research and writing was provided through a grant-in-aid from the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, DC. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT .......................................................................................................................ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .............................................................................................. iv NOMENCLATURE ...................................................................................................... viiii CONTRIBUTORS AND FUNDING SOURCES ........................................................ viiiii TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................................. ix CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER II: “THAT WHICH YOU HEAR YOU’LL SWEAR YOU SEE”: REPORTING AND DOUBT IN HAMLET ..................................................................... 18 Reporting in Shakespeare & His Contemporaries........................................................ 23 The Internal and External Ethos: Early Play Reports, Horatio, Claudius, and Hamlet ................................................................................................................ 32 Ekphrasis and Verification ........................................................................................... 47 Testing the Ghost’s Report ........................................................................................... 58 Conclusions .................................................................................................................
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