Shakespeare’s Dramatic Persons

196 Pages·2017·1.2 MB·English

by  Travis Curtright

Shakespeare’s Dramatic Persons
Shakespeare and the Stage
The Fairleigh Dickinson University Press Series on Shakespeare and the Stage publishes
scholarly works on the theatrical dimensions of the plays of Shakespeare and his contem-
poraries. Both individual studies and collections of previously unpublished essays are
welcome.
Series Editors: Peter Kanelos (Valparaiso University,
Shakespeare’s Dramatic Persons
Travis Curtright
FAIRLEIGH DICKINSON UNIVERSITY PRESS
Madison • Teaneck
Published by Fairleigh Dickinson University Press
Copublished by The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706
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Unit A, Whitacre Mews, 26-34 Stannary Street, London SE11 4AB
Copyright © 2017 by Travis Curtright
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any
electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems,
without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote
passages in a review.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Available
ISBN: 978-1-61147-938-6 (cloth : alk. paper)
ISBN: 978-1-61147-939-3 (electronic)
TM
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American
National Standard for Information Sciences Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
Printed in the United States of America
To Mary
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: Actors and Orators 1
1 King Richard III and Characters as Actors 13
2 Kate’s Audacious Speech of Submission 45
3 Much Ado about Personation 75
4 Iago’s Acting Style 97
5 Marina as Charorator 117
Conclusion: Direct Address as an “Original Practice” 145
Bibliography 159
Index 173
About the Author 185
vii
Acknowledgments
It is a pleasure to acknowledge those who have made this book possible. I
wish first to thank the editors at Fairleigh Dickinson University Press: To
Peter Kanelos and Matthew Kozusko for their interest in and cultivation
of Shakespeare’s Dramatic Persons; and to Harry Keyishian for his editorial
leadership. I am also indebted to Cary M. Mazer, whose review and
suggestions were especially helpful.
Shakespeare’s Dramatic Persons benefited from the careful reading, hon-
est advice, and critical intelligence of many other colleagues and friends.
In particular, I thank Yu Jin Ko for his comments on an earlier version of
chapter 4; Scott Crider, for his insights into my introduction and conclu-
sion; and Gerard Wegemer, for his review of this manuscript in its entire-
ty. Sections of several chapters were first presented at the meetings of the
Shakespeare Association of America, the Center for Thomas More Stud-
ies, and at the Blackfriars conferences of the American Shakespeare Cen-
ter, and I am indebted to those who offered me advice, objections, and
welcome on each of those occasions.
I am grateful to the following presses for permission to use previously
published material: An earlier version of chapter 4 appeared as the essay
“‘Stops in the Name of Love: Playing Typological Iago,” in Shakespeare’s
Sense of Character: On the Page and From the Stage, edited by Yu Jin Ko and
Michael W. Shurgot (Farnham, UK: Ashgate, 2012), 209–22, which is here
revised and expanded. Portions of chapter 5 first appeared in the article,
“‘Falseness cannot come from thee’: Marina as Character and Orator in
Shakespeare’s Pericles ,” Literary Imagination 11: 1 (2009): 99–110.
Finally, I thank family and friends who supported me during the long
process of research and writing. I recall with special gratitude the inspira-
tion and friendship of Ralph Alan Cohen. My parents, Robert and Lor-
raine, along with my children, were full of encouragement. Mary, my
wife, reviewed every chapter; she has waited the longest for this book,
and it is dedicated to her. Without her intelligence, devotion, and genu-
ine regard for the theater and Shakespeare’s plays, this book would not
have been completed.
ix