Shakespearean Temporalities: History on the Early Modern Stage

237 Pages·2018·3.797 MB·English

by  Lukas Lammers

Shakespearean Temporalities
Shakespearean Temporalities addresses a critical neglect in Early Modern
Performance and Shakespeare Studies, revising widely prevailing and
long-standing assumptions about the performance and reception of his-
tory on the early modern stage. Demonstrating that theatre, at the turn
of the seventeenth century, thrived on an intense fascination with per-
ceived tensions between (medieval) past and (early modern) present, this
volume uncovers a dimension of historical drama that has been largely
neglected due to a strong focus on nationhood and a predilection for
‘topical’ readings. It moreover reassesses genre conventions by ventur-
ing beyond the threshold of the supposed “death of the history play,”
in 1603.
Closely analysing a broad range of Shakespeare’s historical drama,
it explores the dramatic techniques that allow the theatre to perform
historical distance. An experience of historical contingency through an
immersion in a world ontologically related yet temporally removed is
thus revealed as a major appeal of historical drama and a striking as-
pect of Shakespeare’s history plays. With a focus on performance, the
experience of playgoers, and the dynamics that resulted from the collec-
tive production of dramatic historiography by competing companies, the
book offers the first analysis of what can be referred to as Shakespeare’s
dramaturgy of historical temporality.
Lukas Lammers is Assistant Professor of English Literature at Freie Uni-
versität Berlin. He has published articles on early modern culture and
literature and is co-editor of Shakespeare Seminar.
Routledge Studies in Shakespeare
23 Renaissance Ecopolitics from Shakespeare to Bacon
Rethinking Cosmopolis
Elizabeth Gruber
24 Shakespeare’s Lost Playhouse
Eleven Days at Newington Butts
Laurie Johnson
25 Shakespeare’s Hamlet in an Era of Textual Exhaustion
Edited By Sonya Freeman Loftis, Allison Kellar, and Lisa Ulevich
26 Shakespeare’s Suicides
Dead Bodies That Matter
Marlena Tronicke
27 The Fictional Lives of Shakespeare
Kevin Gilvary
28 Jonson, Shakespeare, and Aristotle on Comedy
Jonathan Goossen
29 Shakespeare and the Cultivation of Difference
Race and Conduct in the Early Modern World
Patricia Akhimie
30 Casual Shakespeare
Three Centuries of Verbal Echoes
Regula Hohl Trillini
31 Shakespearean Temporalities
History on the Early Modern Stage
Lukas Lammers
For a full list of titles in this series, please visit www.routledge.com.
Shakespearean Temporalities
History on the Early Modern Stage
Lukas Lammers
First published 2018
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an
informa business
© 2018 Taylor & Francis
The right of Lukas Lammers to be identified as author of this
work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 
and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted
or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be
trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for
identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
CIP data has been applied for.
ISBN: 978-1-138-47747-6 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-351-10488-3 (ebk)
D 188
Typeset in Sabon
by codeMantra
Contents
List of Figures vii
Acknowledgements ix
1 Prologue 1
2 Rivalling Collaboration. 1 Henry VI, Henry V,
and The Famous Victories 22
3 Shifting Perspective, Performing Pastness.
Richard II 56
4 Religious Revisions of the Past. King John 90
5 Genre, Geography, and the Jacobean
History Play. Macbeth 134
6 Epilogue 193
Works Cited 211
Index 223

List of Figures
4.1 Time carrying the Pope from England back to Rome.
Hollar, Wenceslaus. This Burden Back to Rome I’ll
Bear Again. C. 1641. Etching. The British Museum,
London. © The Trustees of the British Museum 94
4.2 The description of the poisoning of King John by a
Monk. Woodcut illustration. John Foxe. The Acts and
Monuments (1563). British Library, London, shelfmark
C.37.h.2. (https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/actes-and-
monuments-of-these-latter-and-perillous-dayes) 119
5.1 Macbeth and Banquo’s Encounter With the Three
Weird Sisters. Woodcut illustration. Raphael Holinshed,
The Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland
(1577). British Library, London, shelfmark G.6006-7
(https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/holinsheds-
chronicles-1577) 164

Acknowledgements
This project has gone through various stages and revisions. Throughout
this process, a number of people have helped to make it possible. First and
foremost, I would like to thank Sabine Schülting for her ceaseless support.
I have greatly profited from her scrupulous readings, her generous comments
on earlier versions of most parts of this book, and, not least, from many
discussions. I would also like to acknowledge my debt to the chairs and
participants of the various conferences and research seminars at Birkbeck,
University of London, the University of Essex, the University of Sussex, The
Shakespeare Institute at Stratford, the G erman Shakespeare Society, and
last but certainly not least the participants of the research seminar hosted
by Sabine Schülting, at Freie Universität Berlin. Thanks to all who have
followed me down the long and winding paths of Shakespearean history
and offered their comments. My interest in Shakespeare’s histories and the
performance of history on the early modern stage was first kindled, long
ago, by seminars and discussions with Indira Ghose, John Gillies, and
Manfred Pfister. At a later stage, I have profited from critical feedback by
Anne Enderwitz, Andreas Mahler, Claudia Olk, and many others. An ear-
lier version of parts of Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 appeared in Shakespeare
Jahrbuch and Shakespeare Seminar, and I gladly acknowledge my debt to
the anonymous readers, as well as to Christina Wald and Felix Sprang for
their helpful comments. Michelle Salyga and Tim Swenarton at Routledge
and Sofia Buono at c odeMantra were very supportive and responded to
queries as quickly as one could wish. I am also grateful for suggestions on
improving flow and consistency from Sophia Sam Davis. Discussions with
Zeno Ackermann were invaluable and proved the most amazing source of
energy. Lamine Kabrane’s boundless enthusiasm and Colin Hall’s passion
for the theatre inspired me and spurred me on. Thanks to Mira, Ferdinand,
Ursula, and Ernesto for their trust, patience, and enormously encouraging
interest. My greatest personal debt is, as always, to Karen August, who sat
with me – not only in “winter’s tedious nights” – to talk about “tales / Of
woeful ages long ago betid” (Richard II, 5.1.40–42) and brought present
and future into focus when I ran up against a wall in the pastness of the
past. This book is dedicated to her and to my daughter Lea, who, though
not yet born when most of this book was written, helped me in her very
own peculiar way to finish it.