{"title":"The \"Puritan\" Preacher and The Puritan Widow","authors":"P. Timmis","doi":"10.1353/sip.2023.0003","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:In a controversial attempt to impose order after the Gunpowder Plot, James I sought to require the entire nation to take an Oath of Allegiance confirming his political and religious authority. This essay traces two popular attacks on London's immorality and disunity performed in St. Paul's Cathedral churchyard that respond to the Oath during this period (1606–1609): Thomas Middleton's \"city comedy\" The Puritan Widow, performed by the choirboy-actors of St. Paul's, and William Crashawe's Paul's Cross sermon Against the Papists and Brownists. Despite Crashawe's famous denunciation of Middleton from the pulpit, I argue that Middleton's iconoclastic play carefully reforms its own satire and concludes with a proposal for a united front between the Puritans and their less zealous coreligionists against Catholics and foreigners that would have been acceptable to a preacher like Crashawe in matter if not in medium.","PeriodicalId":45500,"journal":{"name":"STUDIES IN PHILOLOGY","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2000,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"STUDIES IN PHILOLOGY","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1353/sip.2023.0003","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Abstract:In a controversial attempt to impose order after the Gunpowder Plot, James I sought to require the entire nation to take an Oath of Allegiance confirming his political and religious authority. This essay traces two popular attacks on London's immorality and disunity performed in St. Paul's Cathedral churchyard that respond to the Oath during this period (1606–1609): Thomas Middleton's "city comedy" The Puritan Widow, performed by the choirboy-actors of St. Paul's, and William Crashawe's Paul's Cross sermon Against the Papists and Brownists. Despite Crashawe's famous denunciation of Middleton from the pulpit, I argue that Middleton's iconoclastic play carefully reforms its own satire and concludes with a proposal for a united front between the Puritans and their less zealous coreligionists against Catholics and foreigners that would have been acceptable to a preacher like Crashawe in matter if not in medium.
期刊介绍:
Founded in 1903, Studies in Philology addresses scholars in a wide range of disciplines, though traditionally its strength has been English Medieval and Renaissance studies. SIP publishes articles on British literature before 1900 and on relations between British literature and works in the Classical, Romance, and Germanic Languages.