Early Modern Drama at the Universities: Institutions, Intertexts, Individuals PDF
Preview Early Modern Drama at the Universities: Institutions, Intertexts, Individuals
OUPCORRECTEDAUTOPAGEPROOFS–FINAL,30/3/2022,SPi Early Modern Drama at the Universities OUPCORRECTEDAUTOPAGEPROOFS–FINAL,30/3/2022,SPi Early Modern Drama at the Universities Institutions, Intertexts, Individuals ELIZABETH SANDIS OUPCORRECTEDAUTOPAGEPROOFS–FINAL,27/4/2022,SPi GreatClarendonStreet,Oxford,OX26DP, UnitedKingdom OxfordUniversityPressisadepartmentoftheUniversityofOxford. ItfurtherstheUniversity’sobjectiveofexcellenceinresearch,scholarship, andeducationbypublishingworldwide.Oxfordisaregisteredtrademarkof OxfordUniversityPressintheUKandincertainothercountries ©ElizabethSandis2022 Themoralrightsoftheauthorhavebeenasserted FirstEditionpublishedin2022 Impression:1 Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced,storedin aretrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans,withoutthe priorpermissioninwritingofOxfordUniversityPress,orasexpresslypermitted bylaw,bylicenceorundertermsagreedwiththeappropriatereprographics rightsorganization.Enquiriesconcerningreproductionoutsidethescopeofthe aboveshouldbesenttotheRightsDepartment,OxfordUniversityPress,atthe addressabove Youmustnotcirculatethisworkinanyotherform andyoumustimposethissameconditiononanyacquirer PublishedintheUnitedStatesofAmericabyOxfordUniversityPress 198MadisonAvenue,NewYork,NY10016,UnitedStatesofAmerica BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData Dataavailable LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2021951956 ISBN978–0–19–285713–2 DOI:10.1093/oso/9780192857132.001.0001 PrintedandboundintheUKby ClaysLtd,ElcografS.p.A. LinkstothirdpartywebsitesareprovidedbyOxfordingoodfaithand forinformationonly.Oxforddisclaimsanyresponsibilityforthematerials containedinanythirdpartywebsitereferencedinthiswork. OUPCORRECTEDAUTOPAGEPROOFS–FINAL,30/3/2022,SPi Thisbookisdedicatedtoeveryonewhosupportedme.Butalsotoeveryonewho couldn’t.Bothhelped,intheirownway.Therearealwaysgoingtobetoughthings in life, and you might not get to have everyone in your corner. In the end, IdiscoveredallIneededwasmyowndetermination. OUPCORRECTEDAUTOPAGEPROOFS–FINAL,30/3/2022,SPi Preface Mydoctoralresearch2011–2015intothedramaofStJohn’sCollege,Oxford,and Christ Church, Oxford, was the breakthrough study which made this book possible.In-depthexaminationofthestructureandclimateofindividualcolleges within the wider university system proved to be the right way in to a larger phenomenon which has, for centuries, been the elephant in the room for the scholars of English Renaissance drama: the dramatic traditions of Oxford and Cambridge. LikemanyClassicists,Ihad avaguenotion of what ‘neo-Latin’might be,and Ihadtodecideformyselfearlyon,withoutafullunderstanding,howsignificantit might be for pursuing a career in twenty-first-century academia. What began, therefore, withthe initial discovery that sixteenth-and seventeenth-century aca- demicslikedOvidasmuchasIdid—likedhimsomuchthat,insomeplaces,they created their own tradition of writing Latin playlets which dramatized episodes from the Metamorphoses—morphed into a study of what drama really meant to thestudents of anOxford college:a platform for displaying talentanda toolfor climbingupthesocialandpoliticalladderwithinthecollegiateinstitution. ThiswasnottheresultIwasexpectingwhenIstartedtoinvestigateacademic drama at the English universities; I came upon the field with a naive interest in Classicaltexts,discoveredtheextenttowhichLatinitasdominatedtheuniversity world but not why, and battled with apologetic instincts to bring this to the attention of scholars whose own fields were much more well-established and accessible. English-language drama sits at the heart of the study of drama in Englandandwillcontinuetodoso,butmycontributionistoimproveaccessto theEnglishtraditionofLatindramaandmakeitpossibleforscholarstogiveita seatatthetable. Myparticularthankstomyco-supervisorDrWillPooleatNewCollege,who took me on late in the day and gave me invaluable encouragement when I was formulatingthe‘collegebuildingblocksforuniversitydrama’theory.Bothheand my other co-supervisor, Prof. Sir Jonathan Bate at Worcester College, were confident of the bigger picture for my work, even when I was not sure where it was all heading. I am enormously indebted to the AHRC and the Leverhulme Trustforawardingmedoctoralfundingandafellowship,withoutwhichIwould havebeenunabletobringmyideastofruition. Theoriginalconceptforthisbook,beforemorepracticalconsiderationscame intoplay,was‘GrowingupDramaticallyatOxfordandCambridge’,theideathat takingpartindramahelpsustogrow,andthattheyearsspentatuniversitycanbe OUPCORRECTEDAUTOPAGEPROOFS–FINAL,30/3/2022,SPi viii animportantphaseofthatgrowth.Playsallowustoexploreworldsorexperiences outsideourown,andtheyalmostalwaysrequireteamwork,requiringustolearn how to work together and create something which is larger than ourselves. Amateur dramatics, or ‘amdram’ as it is affectionately known, has a special something, though it is quite hard to specify what exactly that something is. It mightbethatwearemakingavirtueoutofvulnerability?Thatwearerewarding ‘havingago’andtakingarisk?Sometimesthemostbelovedproductionsarethose which inspire affection for imperfection and let us into the world behind the scenes. We might notice anxious actors, bungling prop masters, and shoestring budgets:willthesetcomecrashingdown?(Anddoesitreallymatterifitdoes?) As we will see in this study, a certain amount of foolhardy bravery often surfaces in student drama, and audiences tend to reward individuals for putting themselvesoutthere.Sixteenth-andseventeenth-centuryscholarswereinstructed tobuilduptheirconfidenceinpublicspeaking,whatWilliamGagerandThomas Heywoodbothtermed‘audacity’onstage,aspartoftheuniversityexperience,and muchofthetrainingstudentsreceivedwasinhoningtheseoralandperformative skills.Someofthemostfamousnamesintheworldofprofessionaldramainthe earlymodernperiodcuttheirteethonplaysatuniversity,andmanyothersused thedramasceneasawayofadvertisingthemselvestowhoevermighthelpthem getoninlife.AsHeywoodputitinrelationtoaCambridgeeducation,perform- anceinplayswas‘necessaryfortheemboldeningoftheirIuniorschollers,toarme themwithaudacity,againsttheycometobeeimployedinanypublickeexercise’.¹ Although I am no longer using ‘Growing up Dramatically’ in the title to the book, itis a concept which influences mytake on theworldof drama at Oxford andCambridge.Iviewdramaasa‘growingup’and‘gettingon’toolinstudents’ lives,andIhavestructuredthebooktofollowpersonaljourneyswhichindividual studentsaremakingintheireducationalcareerandbeyond.Thenewtitle‘Early Modern Drama at the Universities: Institutions, Intertexts, Individuals’ is rather academic, and I hope that it does not obscure the fact that this is a book about peopleandtheirstories,asmuchasitisaboutanalysingtheformsandfunctionof drama. ¹ ThomasHeywood,AnApologyforActors(London:NicholasOkes,1612),sig.C3v. OUPCORRECTEDAUTOPAGEPROOFS–FINAL,15/4/2022,SPi Contents ListofIllustrations xi Introduction 1 TheStateofPlay 3 VulnerableDebutants,DelicateBlossoms 9 YouthfulAdmissions 11 AmusingBlunders,EmbarrassingBodies 13 ACollegeAffair 16 LanguageandCulture 24 Self-consciousScholarsandScholarship 25 ShakespeareandtheUniversities:‘Them’and‘Us’ 31 ReadersandWriters:UniversityMenasCustomersandCreators 38 Dramaatthe‘ThirdUniversity’ 42 ThreeWaysIn:Institutions;Intertexts;Individuals 45 PART I: INSTITUTIONS 1. SharedBackgroundsandCulturalPathways:FromSchool toUniversity 67 CollegeCommunitiesandTheirFeederSchools 68 PerformativePedagogyandSelectionCriteria 75 Lily’sGrammarandtheGrammarWarPlays 80 2. YoungMaleBodiesandaCommunityinCostume 85 ThePowerofClothes:WhyWasCross-dressingsucha ControversialAct? 86 FromSiena,ItalytoCambridge,England:Re-clothingLaeliain LatinDress 90 CambridgeCollegesandTheirCross-dressedComedies: IntroducingLaelia,Labyrinthus,Susenbrotus,andLoiola 98 PART II: INTERTEXTS 3. Scholar-soldiersTakeonRomanComedy:Role-playingasthe milesgloriosus 117 EmbeddedintheCurriculum,EmbeddedintheMemory 118 FromPlautustoPlautine 124 ArmsversusGown,SwordversusPen 129
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