Doppelgänger dilemmas : Anglo-Dutch relations in early modern English literature and culture PDF
Preview Doppelgänger dilemmas : Anglo-Dutch relations in early modern English literature and culture
Doppelga¨nger Dilemmas This page intentionally left blank DOPPELGÄNGER DILEMMAS Anglo-Dutch Relations in Early Modern English Literature and Culture MARJORIE RUBRIGHT university of pennsylvania press philadelphia Copyright(cid:2)2014UniversityofPennsylvaniaPress Allrightsreserved.Exceptforbriefquotationsusedfor purposesofrevieworscholarlycitation,noneofthisbook maybereproducedinanyformbyanymeanswithout writtenpermissionfromthepublisher. Publishedby UniversityofPennsylvaniaPress Philadelphia,Pennsylvania19104-4112 www.upenn.edu/pennpress PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmericaonacid-freepaper 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Rubright,Marjorie. Doppelga¨ngerdilemmas:Anglo-Dutchrelationsinearly modernEnglishliteratureandculture/Marjorie Rubright.—1sted. p. cm. Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. isbn978-0-8122-4623-0(hardcover:alk.paper) 1.Englishliterature—Earlymodern,1500–1700—History andcriticism. 2.GreatBritain—Relations—Netherlands. 3.Netherlands—Relations—GreatBritain. 4.Cultural relationsinliterature. 5.Ethnicityinliterature. 6.Nationalcharacteristics,English,inliterature. I.Title. pr408.i59R83 2014 820.9(cid:2)358492—dc23 2014011453 ToValeriewithgratitude,foralwaysinspiring This page intentionally left blank contents Introduction:DoubleDutch 1 Chapter1.GoingDutchinLondonCityComedy 38 Chapter2.‘‘ByCommonLanguageResembled’’:Anglo-Dutch KinshipintheLanguageDebates 56 Chapter3.DoubleDutchTongues:LanguageLessonsoftheStage 89 Chapter4.DutchImpressions:TheNarcissismofMinor DifferenceinPrint 110 Chapter5.LondonasPalimpsest:TheAnglo-DutchRoyalExchange 162 Chapter6.Doppelga¨ngerDilemmas:TheCrisis ofAnglo-DutchInterchangeabilityintheEastIndies andtheImperfectRedressofPerformance 189 Coda:AViewfromAntwerp 235 Notes 241 Bibliography 301 Index 327 Acknowledgments 339 This page intentionally left blank Introduction Double Dutch AntipholusofSyracuse:AndwherestoodBelgia,theNetherlands? DromioofSyracuse:Oh,sir,Ididnotlooksolow. —WilliamShakespeare,TheComedyofErrors,4.1.136–37 In early modern England, the category ‘‘Dutch’’ worked like a pun on the English imagination. Nowhere is this more vividly displayed than when the realandimaginedculturalproximitiesbetweenEnglandandtheLowCoun- tries emerge in the form of a double entendre. In Thomas Dekker and ThomasMiddleton’stheatricalcomedyTheRoaringGirl (1611),forinstance, theextramaritalpromiscuityoftheplay’scitizensempsterisfiguredthrough a series of double entendres that render the Low Countries and London’s suburbsasoverlappingsitesofillicitsexualcommerce: MistressOpenwork:HaveIfoundoutoneofyourhaunts?Isendyou forhollands,andyou’rei’thelowcountrieswithamischief.... MasterOpenwork:Sherailsuponmeforforeignwenching,thatI, beingafreeman,mustneedskeepawhorei’th’suburbs,andseek toimpoverishtheliberties.1 Beyond the legal jurisdiction of the city’s mayor but buttressing its borders, the liberties of London were notorious spaces for all kinds of illicit activity, particularly the running of houses of prostitution. Master Openwork bemoans being driven beyond the liberties, just outside the city walls, and into the suburbs for his extramarital delights. Earlier in the play, Mistress Openwork similarly puns on a nearby province of the Low Countries when she castigates her husband for his whoring: ‘‘keep you your yard to measure
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