Mother Queens and Princely Sons: Rogue Madonnas in the Age of Shakespeare

211 Pages·2012·4.974 MB·English

by  Sid Ray

QUEENSHIP AND POWER
Series Editors: Carole Levin and Charles Beem
This series brings together monographs and edited volumes from scholars specializing
in gender analysis, women’s studies, literary interpretation, and cultural, political,
constitutional, and diplomatic history. It aims to broaden our understanding of the
strategies that queens—both consorts and regnants, as well as female regents—pursued 04
in order to wield political power within the structures of male-dominant societies. In 07-
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addition to works describing European queenship, it also includes books on queenship 1
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aIssl aitm aipcp ceiavrileidz aitnio ontsh. er parts of the world, such as East Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and ect -
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Editorial Board gr
al
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Linda Darling, University of Arizona (Ottoman Empire) y -
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Theresa Earenfight, Seattle University (Spain) dn
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Dorothy Ko, Barnard College (China) of S
Nancy Kollman, Stanford University (Russia) y
John Thornton, Boston University (Africa and the Atlantic World) ersit
John Watkins (France and Italy) niv
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Published by Palgrave Macmillan ed t
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T Byh eC Lhiaonrleesss RBoeaermed : The Problems of Female Rule in English History m - lic
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Elizabeth of York ect.
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By Arlene Naylor Okerlund on
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Learned Queen: The Imperial Image of Elizabeth I gr
By Linda Shenk pal
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High and Mighty Queens of Early Modern England: Realities and Representations m w
Edited by Carole Levin, Debra Barrett-Graves and Jo Eldridge Carney al fro
The Monstrous Regiment of Women: Female Rulers in Early Modern Europe eri
at
By Sharon L. Jansen m
ht
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The Face of Queenship: Early Modern Representations of Elizabeth I yri
p
By Anna Riehl Co
Elizabeth I: The Voice of a Monarch
By Ilona Bell
Tudor Queenship: The Reigns of Mary and Elizabeth
By Anna Whitelock and Alice Hunt
10.1057/9781137003805 - Mother Queens and Princely Sons, Sid Ray
The Death of Elizabeth I: Remembering and Reconstructing the Virgin Queen
By Catherine Loomis
Queenship and Voice in Medieval Northern Europe
By William Layher
The Foreign Relations of Elizabeth I
Edited by Charles Beem
The French Queen’s Letters: Mary Tudor Brandon and the Politics of Marriage
in Sixteenth-Century Europe
By Erin A. Sadlack
Wicked Women of Tudor England: Queens, Aristocrats, Commoners
By Retha M. Warnicke
A Monarchy of Letters: Royal Correspondence and English Diplomacy
in the Reign of Elizabeth I
By Rayne Allinson
Three Medieval Queens: Queenship and the Crown in Fourteenth-Century England
By Lisa Benz St. John
Mary I: Gender, Power, and Ceremony in the Reign of England’s First Queen
By Sarah Duncan
The Last Plantagenet Consorts: Gender, Genre, and Historiography, 1440–1627
By Kavita Mudan Finn
Fairy Tale Queens: Representations of Early Modern Queenship
By Jo Eldridge Carney
Mother Queens and Princely Sons: Rogue Madonnas in the Age of Shakespeare
By Sid Ray
Queenship in Medieval Europe (forthcoming)
By Theresa Earenfight
Queenship in Early Modern Europe (forthcoming)
By Charles Beem
M Q
OTHER UEENS AND
P S
RINCELY ONS
ROGUE MADONNAS IN THE
AGE OF SHAKESPEARE
Sid Ray
MOTHER QUEENS AND PRINCELY SONS
Copyright © Sid Ray, 2012.
All rights reserved.
First published in 2012 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN®
in the United States—a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world,
this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills,
Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN: 978–1–137–00379–9
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ray, Sid, 1966–
Mother Queens and princely sons : rogue Madonnas in the age of
Shakespeare / Sid Ray.
pages cm.—(Queenship and power)
ISBN 978–1–137–00379–9 (alk. paper)
1. Mary, Blessed Virgin, Saint—Motherhood. 2. England—Kings
and rulers. 3. Kings and rulers—Religious aspects—Christianity.
4. Queens—England. 5. English drama—Early modern and Elizabethan,
1500–1600—History and criticism. 6. Mothers and sons in literature.
7. Shakespeare, William, 1564–1616—Characters—Mothers.
8. Webster, John, 1580?–1625? Duchess of Malfi. I. Title.
BT605.3R388 2012
306.874(cid:2)3—dc23 2012034222
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India.
First edition: October 2012
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America.
For Isabella Ray Kearns
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C
ONTENTS
List of Illustrations ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction: Madonna, Child, and Early Modern
Accolated Bodies 1
1 “Above God Himselfe”: The Rogue Madonna and Her
Daughter Queens 17
2 “A Joyful Mother of Two Goodly Sons”: The Madonna
of Ephesus and Her Disruptive Twins 45
3 “So Troubled with the Mother”: The Politics of Pregnancy
in The Duchess of Malfi 67
4 “Partner[s] of Greatness”: The Madonnas of M acbeth 81
5 “A Shall Not Tread on Me”: Motherless Sons from Titus
Andronicus to The Winter’s Tale 105
Afterword 131
Notes 135
Bibliography 171
Index 185
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I
LLUSTRATIONS
Cover Image: Holy Family , attributed to Giulio Romano (1492–1546)
0.1 Reverse of gold eight-drachma piece of Ptolemy II
Philadelphus (285–246 BCE), depicting his deified parents
Ptolemy I and Berenice 4
1.1 The Beautiful-eyed Madonna (oil on panel), Giovanni
Bellini (c. 1430–1516) 25
2.1 Artemis of Ephesus (bronze and alabaster), Roman (second
century CE) 48
3.1 Madonna del Parto (fresco), Taddeo Gaddi (c. 1300–66) 70
4.1 Luther as the Devil’s Bagpipes (color woodcut, c. 1535)
Eduard Schoen 91
5.1 Madonna and Child (panel, c. 1530–40) Giulio Romano 126
5.2 Olympia is seduced by Jupiter whose thunderbolt is seized
by an eagle who drills the eye of the jealous king of
Macedonia (fresco, 1528), Giulio Romano 127