Ponti, Emanuela (2010) Performing dreams in England and Spain, 1570- 1670. PhD thesis. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/1737/ Copyright and moral rights for this thesis are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Glasgow Theses Service http://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] PERFORMING DREAMS IN ENGLAND AND SPAIN, 1570-1670 by Emanuela Ponti Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the Department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies, Faculty of Arts, University of Glasgow, February 2010. Copyright © Emanuela Ponti, 2010. Dedicated to Cornelio, Nadia, Giuseppe, Micol and Mark, my family. ii PREFACE The work described in this thesis was carried out by the author in the Department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies of Glasgow University during the period September 2005 to September 2009. The work is that of the author and is original in content except where otherwise stated. Emanuela Ponti February 2010 iii CONTENTS Acknowledgments V List of Illustrations VI Abstract VII Chapter 1 Introduction: Theatre and Dreams in England and Spain, 1570-1670 1 Chapter 2 Phenomenology, Genre and On-Stage Dreams 38 Chapter 3 Dreams that Domesticate: The Taming of the Shrew and A Midsummer Night’s Dream 79 Chapter 4 Dreams Fit to Mould a Prince: Life Is a Dream 122 Chapter 5 Dreams that Make Believe: Sometimes Dreams Come True 161 Chapter 6 Dreams of Private and Public Concerns: The Young King 195 Conclusion 235 Bibliography 243 iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis is the result of five years of postgraduate study in the TFTS Department of Glasgow University, where I first completed my MPhil Theatre by Research and then began the stimulating journey that has been my PhD. My interest in theatre history and in the early modern period started during my undergraduate studies at Milan University and was nurtured by Dr Margaret Rose and Professor Anna Anzi, who supervised my MA dissertation. I would like to thank them both for their initial support and advice. Grazie to Dr P.A. Skantze, my first supervisor at Glasgow University, who set in motion my curiosity towards dreams in early modern England and Spain and believed in this project when it still did not make much sense. I am very grateful to my supervisors Dr Vicky Price and Professor Adrienne Scullion, who generously and patiently guided my work over the last two years and gave me precious suggestions and encouragement throughout. Once more, grazie to my beloved and much-missed family: to Cornelio and Nadia for their unconditional love and unrivalled example of parenthood, to Giuseppe for his witty talent and to Micol for her sweet tenderness. It is difficult to express through words the love I have for them and the gratitude for the ways in which they make me feel close to them all, even miles and miles away from Tradate. I hope this work will somehow reward them for my long absence from home and I know I will never thank them enough for their being, simply, meravigliosi . Friends in Italy also deserve my thankfulness for having accepted and encouraged my choice. I want to thank Lorenza for being so close to me since the first day of our Liceo and I would like to remind her that physical distance cannot weaken the strength of our friendship. Thanks to Eleonora, a great friend who has shared with me countless joyful moments and the passion for literature and art. Grazie to Valeria and Lele for their generous friendship, enthusiasm about my studies and overall support. In Glasgow, thanks to my friend Giangi, the best chef in the world who has fed me with lovely feasts and with his amiable madness. Thanks also to the other Glaswegian friends, those who have left and those who are still here, marvellous ‘machines’ (!) with whom I have spent five unforgettable years. Lastly to Mark, a great wee man ‘ che dà per gli occhi una dolcezza al core, che ‘ntender no la può chi no la prova ’. v LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FIGURE 1: El Greco, The Dream of Philip II , c. 1580. © Real Monasterio Escorial, San Lorenzo de El Escorial 4 FIGURE 2: Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, Self Portrait , c. 1670-73. © National Gallery, London 62 FIGURE 3: William Quiller Orchardson, Christopher Sly , 1867. © Charles Knight, ed., (1873-76) Imperial Edition of The Works of Shakespeare 86 FIGURE 4: Pieter Paul Rubens, The Battle of the Amazons , c. 1615. © Alte Pinakothek, Munich 91 FIGURE 5: Henry Fuseli, Titania and Bottom , c. 1790. © Tate Gallery, London 105 FIGURE 6: Antonio Pereda, The Soldier’s Dream , 1640. © Museo de la Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, Madrid 154 FIGURE 7: Engraving of the Corpus Christi procession in Madrid, 1623. Picture taken from: http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/bib_autor/Calderon/imgfiesta2.shtml . [Accessed: 25 September 2009] 169 FIGURE 8: Giuseppe Nuvolone (attributed to), Amazons Preparing for the Battle , c. 1650. © Musei Civici di Arte e Storia, Brescia 205 vi ABSTRACT This thesis investigates the performance of dreams and dreaming in a few early modern English and Spanish plays, namely William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew and A Midsummer Night’s Dream , Pedro Calderón de la Barca’s Life Is a Dream and Sometimes Dreams Come True and Aphra Behn’s The Young King . In chapter 1 I introduce the cultural milieus in which my case studies operate and validate my comparative approach by calling attention to the fact that both dramas attend to similar preoccupations regarding traditional rank and gender hierarchies. Furthermore, I provide an account of the dream theories in force at that time and underscore that dreams are seen as either negligible or very significant entities. Chapter 2 elucidates why I have chosen to study the dreams within the selected plays focusing on their phenomenal, generic and ideological attributes. Phenomenological analysis allows me to prove that the dreams I consider are deeply sensory occurrences that look and feel like reality and vividly expose disturbing (male) habits of power attainment and safeguarding. The plays at issue predictably terminate with the celebration of the (socio-political or religious) values of the patriarchy; nonetheless, I argue that the lifelike dreams have throughout cast doubt on the legitimacy of the beliefs that prevail on- and off-stage and, hence, cannot be simply set aside at the end of the performance. Chapter 3 considers The Taming of the Shrew and A Midsummer Night’s Dream in order to: 1) show that in these two comedies powerful male figures exploit dreams to shape the visual/ideological perceptions of socially inferior characters; and, 2) verify that the simultaneously illusory and tangible quality of dream (and performance) is not easily dismiss-able as ‘airy nothing’. Chapter 4 and 5 respectively explore Life Is a Dream and Sometimes Dreams Come True and demonstrate that the dreams in question paradoxically endorse and query the philosophical and religious core of these two plays. In fact, life may be a dream, but in it the acquisition of political authority matters very much; Catholic dogma may be true, but it only comes to life via (supposedly insubstantial) dreams. By investigating The Young King , the last chapter of this thesis again proves the phenomenal and cultural weight dreams acquire on early modern stages: the dreams within this tragicomedy intensely reveal the artificiality of established gender positions and powerfully portray ‘natural’ male pre-eminence in an equivocal light. vii Chapter 1 Introduction: Theatre and Dreams in England and Spain, 1570- 1670 This thesis explores the performance of dreams and dreaming within early modern English and Spanish drama, specifically in Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew (1592-94) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1595-96), Calderón de la Barca’s Life Is a Dream (1636) and Sometimes Dreams Come True (1670), and Aphra Behn’s The Young King (1679). 1 These plays have been selected for three main reasons: they present characters who actually fall asleep and dream or, alternatively, think they are dreaming; they show the (at times only provisional) social advancement of a male character by means of a ( real or feigned) dream experience; they exhibit the manipulative use that socially dominant characters make of dreams or dreamlike circumstances. 2 Clearly, the case studies belong to different historical periods and contexts (Tudor and Stuart England, Habsburg Spain, Restoration England) and fit into diverse genre categories. However, I argue that they manifest similar anxieties regarding the gaining or the preservation of socio-political power and that they do so by performing dreams on the stages of the public theatres. My analysis of the individual dramatic works focuses on the phenomenal features the dreams acquire in performance. Thanks to these features, the on-stage dreams tangibly materialise before audiences and produce a lifelike depiction of controversial issues. At the same time, they are just dreams and, as such, some of the dramatic characters (as well as the playwrights and the theatre companies worried about censorship) can opportunely disclaim their actual significance at the end of the performance. In the past the literary dreams of early modern England and Spain have been studied mostly through formalist or psychoanalytic approaches: for instance, Marjorie Garber’s 1 The Spanish artistic production created between 1550 (the last years of Charles V’s reign) and 1681 (when Calderón died) is traditionally referred to as ‘Golden Age’.