University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Doctoral Dissertations Dissertations and Theses June 2021 “The Badge of All Our Tribe”: Contradictions of Jewish Representation on the English Renaissance Stage Becky S. Friedman University of Massachusetts Amherst Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_2 Part of the Dramatic Literature, Criticism and Theory Commons, Jewish Studies Commons, Literature in English, British Isles Commons, and the Renaissance Studies Commons Recommended Citation Friedman, Becky S., "“The Badge of All Our Tribe”: Contradictions of Jewish Representation on the English Renaissance Stage" (2021). Doctoral Dissertations. 2178. https://doi.org/10.7275/22251403.0 https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_2/2178 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Dissertations and Theses at ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. 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For more information, please contact [email protected]. “The Badge of All Our Tribe”: Contradictions of Jewish Representation on the English Renaissance Stage A Dissertation Presented by BECKY SARA FRIEDMAN Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts Amherst in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY May 2021 English © Copyright by Becky Sara Friedman 2021 All Rights Reserved “The Badge of All Our Tribe”: Contradictions of Jewish Representation on the English Renaissance Stage A Dissertation Presented by BECKY SARA FRIEDMAN Approved as to style and content by: ________________________________________________ Jane Hwang Degenhardt, Chair ________________________________________________ Adam Zucker, Member ________________________________________________ Harley Erdman, Member ________________________________________________ Randall Knoper, Department Chair English ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First and foremost, I would like to thank Jane Hwang Degenhardt. From guiding the trajectory of my inquiries to inviting me to be unafraid in questioning enduring narratives, Jane has empowered me to contribute to a field that is rich with opinion and expertise. She has also shown me the meaning of mentorship, providing counsel on professionalization questions, quelling the insecurities of an early-career scholar, and showing patience as I navigated this years-long academic project. Without her wisdom and support, this dissertation would simply not be what it is. Thanks are also owed to Adam Zucker, who has helped me in and out of the classroom to think harder about my research, and who has offered insight into academia from the time that I was a prospective student through coursework, Areas Exams, and finally in my dissertation defense. Harley Erdman has also been crucial to my graduate school journey, especially through his own work on Jews in drama, but also by joining my dissertation committee. In addition, I would like to thank the staff and fellows of the Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. The seminars and scholarly exchange at 420 Walnut Street have played significant roles in my academic and professional growth. In particular, I must acknowledge Nancy Berg, whose determined support not only inspired me to keep writing, but to do so with confidence. Likewise, I must thank everyone affiliated with the Arthur F. Kinney Center for Interdisciplinary Renaissance Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst for the opportunities to engage in rigorous and enriching discussion. The library staff at both UMass and Penn were also essential to the completion of this project, and I must express iv gratitude to the many people at both institutions whose research services supported my work. For their feedback on my ideas, I would like to thank the participants of the Folger Institute Scholarly Program “Neighborhood, Community, and Place in Early Modern London.” The responses, comments, and questions from every academic conference in which I participated have also been valuable in the formation and refinement of my ideas, and so I am grateful to the organizers whose labor made many of those venues possible. My time as an undergraduate student at Penn was extraordinarily influential in my intellectual pursuits. Zachary Lesser, Peter Conn, and David Richetti played pivotal roles in steering me towards an academic career, and I cannot say enough about the encouragement I received from Srilata Gangulee. Many thanks also go to Phyllis Rackin, who took me on as a research assistant and introduced me to the wonders of a photocopier from an early age. And my thanks to all of the brilliant classmates, past and present, who challenged my thinking and motivated me to read, learn, and study more. I wish to thank my family for believing in my need to pursue this path. It has not been easy—or perhaps always interesting—to listen to me discuss unfinished research. Neither has it been a short road. Please know that my gratitude is boundless. I must also thank my friends who inquired about my research when I wanted to discuss it, offered moral support when I didn’t, and provided much-needed love and amusement as I pored over this dissertation during a period of extreme isolation as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Finally, thanks go to my cat, Penny, who was the only living creature near me as I crafted, revised, erased, rewrote, and refined this written work. v ABSTRACT “THE BADGE OF ALL OUR TRIBE”: CONTRADICTIONS OF JEWISH REPRESENTATION ON THE ENGLISH RENAISSANCE STAGE MAY 2021 BECKY SARA FRIEDMAN, B.A., UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA M.A., UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA Ph.D., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by: Professor Jane Hwang Degenhardt Literary and historical records fueled fantasies of intense difference between the Jews and Christians of early modern England. Representations of Jewishness in the Renaissance theater drew on many of these enduring pejorative fictions, which associated Jews with financial manipulation, corporeal abnormalities, and an innate predilection for iniquity. At the same time, depictions of stunningly beautiful Jewish women and sympathetic, relatable Jewish commoners also emerged on the stage, complicating centuries-old attitudes of antipathy with suggestions of fascination, compassion, and similitude. “The Badge of All Our Tribe”: Contradictions of Jewish Representation on the English Renaissance Stage sheds light on this broader spectrum of Jewish portraiture in the period’s theater. Examining both canonical and lesser-known play texts, the study reveals the contradictory logics associated with Jews and Jewishness in performance and closet drama. Even as unfavorable stereotypes persisted in plays such as The Jew of Malta and The Merchant of Venice, flattering portrayals embedded within those same works and in others—including The Tragedy of Mariam and The Jewes Tragedy— vi challenge assumptions regarding the dominance of anti-Jewish feeling in the English imagination. Gendered divergences, as captured by Cary’s Mariam and Marlowe’s Barabas, for example, enrich this study of incongruity by demonstrating the ways that a single period of English theatrical history produced Jewish characters who, on the one hand, embodied goodness and a host of Christ-like attributes, while, on the other, typified villainy and a variety of diabolical proclivities. These conspicuous distinctions contribute to the complex representational work of the stage. This project focuses in particular on the theatrical uses of gesture, mobility, and material elements, including costumes and props, to analyze the embodied performance of Jewishness and its multidimensional layers of signification. Additionally, it examines the language of Jewishness, including a close analysis of speech patterns and vocal diversity that contribute to the heterogeneity of Jewish dramatic representations. By offering a new account of the representational complexities and contradictions of Jewishness on the early modern stage, this dissertation seeks to enhance our scholarly understanding of Anglo-Jewish culture, English attitudes towards Jews, and the important contributions of drama to constructions of Jewish difference and likeness. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.……………………………………………………………….iv ABSTRACT..…………………………………………………………………………….vi LIST OF FIGURES………………………………………………………………………ix CHAPTER INTRODUCTION: QUINTESSENTIALLY CONTRADICTORY ……………………. 1 1. POLYVOCALITY AND THE POPULOUS JEWISH PRESENCE IN THE JEWES TRAGEDY.……………………………………………………………………………….26 Vox Populi.………………………………………………………………..……..33 Jews Without Christians…………………………………………………………48 Linguistic Adaptability…………………………………………………………..57 Jewish Polyvocality……………………………………………………………...63 2. “MATCHLESS MARIAM”: THE EXCEPTIONALISM OF THE JEWISH WOMAN..………………………………………………………………………………..80 Integrable Jewishness…………………………………………………………….86 The Jewish Woman as an Agent of Change……………………………………102 A Future-Oriented Vision of Jewishness……………………………………….114 3. DISPLACING THE EARLY MODERN STAGE JEW.…………………………….128 Jewish Domains and the Permeability of Borders.……………………………..136 Displacement on the Stage.……………………………………………………..148 The Wandering Jews of the English Imagination..……………………………..159 4. “EXCELLENTLY WELL HABITED”: ACTING JEWISH ON THE STAGE…….175 Costume as a Signifier of Jewishness…………………………………………..179 Wigs, Hats, and Other Jewish Props……………………………………………194 Physical