Abstract:In modern times, scholars have widely regarded early Elizabethan tragedy, like Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville's Gorboduc (1561/62) and its successors at the Inns of Court, as verbose and unlyrical. Those criticisms may reflect an incomplete understanding of the original performance tradition, however. Like Senecan tragedies from this period, those plays include act-ending choruses, mostly in pentameter and in various stanza configurations. This study proposes that in the English tragedies, at least, those choruses were very likely sung, most probably to tunes from the emerging repertoire of metrical psalms. These findings would significantly affect the character of such plays and how they are perceived by scholars and audiences alike.
{"title":"Hidden Music in Early Elizabethan Tragedy","authors":"Ross W. Duffin","doi":"10.12745/et.24.1.4162","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12745/et.24.1.4162","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:In modern times, scholars have widely regarded early Elizabethan tragedy, like Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville's Gorboduc (1561/62) and its successors at the Inns of Court, as verbose and unlyrical. Those criticisms may reflect an incomplete understanding of the original performance tradition, however. Like Senecan tragedies from this period, those plays include act-ending choruses, mostly in pentameter and in various stanza configurations. This study proposes that in the English tragedies, at least, those choruses were very likely sung, most probably to tunes from the emerging repertoire of metrical psalms. These findings would significantly affect the character of such plays and how they are perceived by scholars and audiences alike.","PeriodicalId":422756,"journal":{"name":"Early Theatre: A Journal associated with the Records of Early English Drama","volume":"30 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131483454","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract:This article places three scenes by Shakespeare within a specific architectural history. It reads the statuary female bodies of Desdemona, Hermione, and Imogen as revered and desecrated objects within the niched spaces of the indoor theatre's discovery space.
{"title":"Shakespeare's Statuary Women and the Indoor Theatre's Discovery Space","authors":"Myles O'Gorman, Bonnie Lander Johnson","doi":"10.12745/et.24.1.4242","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12745/et.24.1.4242","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:This article places three scenes by Shakespeare within a specific architectural history. It reads the statuary female bodies of Desdemona, Hermione, and Imogen as revered and desecrated objects within the niched spaces of the indoor theatre's discovery space.","PeriodicalId":422756,"journal":{"name":"Early Theatre: A Journal associated with the Records of Early English Drama","volume":"25 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129367286","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract:The point of Jonson's joke, that 'Marston wrote his father-in-law's preachings, and his father-in-law his comedies' has never been explained. The discovery that the father-in-law, William Wilkes, quotes directly from The Malcontent in his Of Obedience, or Ecclesiastical Unity reveals an important context of the play, the puritan push for church reform from the beginning of James's reign, culminating in the 1604 Hampton Court conference and the subsequent removal of nonconformists from the clergy. Wilkes and Marston were at one in resisting puritan 'innovation'. This reference dates the play within the first year of the reign, probably to early 1604.
{"title":"'Marston wrote his father-in-law's preachings, and his father-in-law his comedies': Of Obedience, or Ecclesiastical Unity and the Dating of The Malcontent","authors":"Richard P. Dutton","doi":"10.12745/ET.23.2.4008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12745/ET.23.2.4008","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:The point of Jonson's joke, that 'Marston wrote his father-in-law's preachings, and his father-in-law his comedies' has never been explained. The discovery that the father-in-law, William Wilkes, quotes directly from The Malcontent in his Of Obedience, or Ecclesiastical Unity reveals an important context of the play, the puritan push for church reform from the beginning of James's reign, culminating in the 1604 Hampton Court conference and the subsequent removal of nonconformists from the clergy. Wilkes and Marston were at one in resisting puritan 'innovation'. This reference dates the play within the first year of the reign, probably to early 1604.","PeriodicalId":422756,"journal":{"name":"Early Theatre: A Journal associated with the Records of Early English Drama","volume":"64 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133833207","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract:The bill and answer for the 1640 court of request proceedings constitute the extant evidence of the terms of two contracts between Richard Brome and the Salisbury Court, one signed in 1635 and the other drafted in 1638 but unsigned. Inferring from these documents key differences between the contracts, this essay argues that the first contract left crucial ambiguities about the value of Brome's labour, and the company attempted to resolve these ambiguities to its advantage through the second contract and the bill of complaint. This evidence suggests a primarily antagonistic relationship between Brome and the Salisbury Court from 1636.
{"title":"Narratives of Value in Richard Brome's Dispute with the Salisbury Court","authors":"Bradley D. Ryner","doi":"10.12745/ET.23.2.3153","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12745/ET.23.2.3153","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:The bill and answer for the 1640 court of request proceedings constitute the extant evidence of the terms of two contracts between Richard Brome and the Salisbury Court, one signed in 1635 and the other drafted in 1638 but unsigned. Inferring from these documents key differences between the contracts, this essay argues that the first contract left crucial ambiguities about the value of Brome's labour, and the company attempted to resolve these ambiguities to its advantage through the second contract and the bill of complaint. This evidence suggests a primarily antagonistic relationship between Brome and the Salisbury Court from 1636.","PeriodicalId":422756,"journal":{"name":"Early Theatre: A Journal associated with the Records of Early English Drama","volume":"33 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124999940","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract:Drawing on two previously unnoticed documents, this note identifies two new named early modern playgoers and connects their playgoing to the 1626 petition to close the Blackfriars theatre.
{"title":"'Noe Place to Talk In': Two More Brawling Playgoers and the 1626 Attempt to Close the Blackfriars Playhouse","authors":"Matteo Pangallo","doi":"10.12745/ET.23.2.3988","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12745/ET.23.2.3988","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:Drawing on two previously unnoticed documents, this note identifies two new named early modern playgoers and connects their playgoing to the 1626 petition to close the Blackfriars theatre.","PeriodicalId":422756,"journal":{"name":"Early Theatre: A Journal associated with the Records of Early English Drama","volume":"174 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131822447","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract:This essay focuses on provincial libel cases between private individuals tried at the court of Star Chamber during the early seventeenth century. Libelling saw personal scandals creatively couched in verses, visual symbols, or mock-ceremonies, and read, sung, and posted in early modern communities. This essay identifies a range of 'manners' of libel, and compares a libellous 'Stage plaie' to a set of libellous mock-proclamations and a 'book' of playing card knaves. The essay argues that libels should be understood as functioning on a spectrum of performance. They should therefore prompt an expansion of the boundaries of early performance.
{"title":"Performing Early Modern Libel: Expanding the Boundaries of Performance","authors":"C. Egan","doi":"10.12745/ET.23.2.4385","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12745/ET.23.2.4385","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:This essay focuses on provincial libel cases between private individuals tried at the court of Star Chamber during the early seventeenth century. Libelling saw personal scandals creatively couched in verses, visual symbols, or mock-ceremonies, and read, sung, and posted in early modern communities. This essay identifies a range of 'manners' of libel, and compares a libellous 'Stage plaie' to a set of libellous mock-proclamations and a 'book' of playing card knaves. The essay argues that libels should be understood as functioning on a spectrum of performance. They should therefore prompt an expansion of the boundaries of early performance.","PeriodicalId":422756,"journal":{"name":"Early Theatre: A Journal associated with the Records of Early English Drama","volume":"34 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133814653","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract:The spread of the plague in Norwich in July 1603 disrupted the city's celebrations of the coronation of King James I, and precipitated a conflict between the city's mayor, Thomas Lane, and the alderman Robert Gibson, which culminated in Gibson taking Lane to the Star Chamber. Drawing on previously unexamined legal and civic documents, this essay reconstructs both Norwich's planned and actual coronation festivities and their role in the dispute in July, including its longer legal aftermath in court. The essay examines the meanings and functions participants attributed to the celebrations in Norwich, and to what extent they can be understood as performances, and, if so, of what.
{"title":"Shows of Joy and Malice: Performance, the Star Chamber, and the Celebration of James I's Coronation in Norwich in 1603","authors":"Emily Mayne","doi":"10.12745/ET.23.2.4387","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12745/ET.23.2.4387","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:The spread of the plague in Norwich in July 1603 disrupted the city's celebrations of the coronation of King James I, and precipitated a conflict between the city's mayor, Thomas Lane, and the alderman Robert Gibson, which culminated in Gibson taking Lane to the Star Chamber. Drawing on previously unexamined legal and civic documents, this essay reconstructs both Norwich's planned and actual coronation festivities and their role in the dispute in July, including its longer legal aftermath in court. The essay examines the meanings and functions participants attributed to the celebrations in Norwich, and to what extent they can be understood as performances, and, if so, of what.","PeriodicalId":422756,"journal":{"name":"Early Theatre: A Journal associated with the Records of Early English Drama","volume":"5 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115137018","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract:Arguably the largest source of REED material of their kind so far collected, the accounts of Durham's medieval monastic community provide evidence for plays, music, and performers from around the palatinate, including payments to istriones, joculatores, and ministralli performing for various occasions. With accountancy material, however, it can be difficult deciding if individual entries represent evidence of performers or performances per se, or what the nature of any performance might have been. This essay examines these issues in Durham's accountancy records, looking particularly at Finchale Priory's so-called 'playerchambre': instances in which evidence of 'performance' is uncertain and/or only determinable by wider consideration of context.
{"title":"'Players' in Context: Determining Performance in Medieval Accountancy Records","authors":"Mark Chambers","doi":"10.12745/ET.23.2.4383","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12745/ET.23.2.4383","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:Arguably the largest source of REED material of their kind so far collected, the accounts of Durham's medieval monastic community provide evidence for plays, music, and performers from around the palatinate, including payments to istriones, joculatores, and ministralli performing for various occasions. With accountancy material, however, it can be difficult deciding if individual entries represent evidence of performers or performances per se, or what the nature of any performance might have been. This essay examines these issues in Durham's accountancy records, looking particularly at Finchale Priory's so-called 'playerchambre': instances in which evidence of 'performance' is uncertain and/or only determinable by wider consideration of context.","PeriodicalId":422756,"journal":{"name":"Early Theatre: A Journal associated with the Records of Early English Drama","volume":"10 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128359181","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract:This essay argues that the musical performances in Middleton's The Witch (ca 1616), largely dismissed by critics as unsophisticated spectacles, are some of the play's most innovative features. The witches' songs implicitly critique the patriarchal order that has led to the dysfunctional intrigues of the courtly world from which they are excluded and offer the audience an alternative centred on a joyful, supportive community of women. To do this, Middleton's play appropriates and subverts the musical dynamics of Ben Jonson's Masque of Queens (1609), deconstructing conventional associations between music and social harmony, and invites the audience to explore alternative social formations.
{"title":"Music, Community, and Middleton's Anti-Masque in The Witch","authors":"A. Loeb","doi":"10.12745/ET.23.2.3987","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12745/ET.23.2.3987","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:This essay argues that the musical performances in Middleton's The Witch (ca 1616), largely dismissed by critics as unsophisticated spectacles, are some of the play's most innovative features. The witches' songs implicitly critique the patriarchal order that has led to the dysfunctional intrigues of the courtly world from which they are excluded and offer the audience an alternative centred on a joyful, supportive community of women. To do this, Middleton's play appropriates and subverts the musical dynamics of Ben Jonson's Masque of Queens (1609), deconstructing conventional associations between music and social harmony, and invites the audience to explore alternative social formations.","PeriodicalId":422756,"journal":{"name":"Early Theatre: A Journal associated with the Records of Early English Drama","volume":"445 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133466249","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract:Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus is generally treated as a soteriological riddle: is Faustus damned, and if so, when, and why? This essay argues that such approaches miss the overwhelming emphasis (in both surviving versions of the play) on Faustus's reprobation. Faustus, instead of presenting a puzzle waiting to be solved, is better appreciated as an incomparable portrait of the experience of reprobate living. Even more, via its textual and performance history, Faustus sheds light on the collective and collaborative practices of real Renaissance actors and theatregoers coming to terms with the post-Reformation religious trauma they shared with the lonely doctor.
{"title":"'That's hard': Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus and the Trauma of Reprobation","authors":"M. Scott","doi":"10.12745/ET.23.2.3894","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.12745/ET.23.2.3894","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus is generally treated as a soteriological riddle: is Faustus damned, and if so, when, and why? This essay argues that such approaches miss the overwhelming emphasis (in both surviving versions of the play) on Faustus's reprobation. Faustus, instead of presenting a puzzle waiting to be solved, is better appreciated as an incomparable portrait of the experience of reprobate living. Even more, via its textual and performance history, Faustus sheds light on the collective and collaborative practices of real Renaissance actors and theatregoers coming to terms with the post-Reformation religious trauma they shared with the lonely doctor.","PeriodicalId":422756,"journal":{"name":"Early Theatre: A Journal associated with the Records of Early English Drama","volume":"23 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130663801","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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