The Cambridge Companion to English Renaissance Tragedy

292 Pages·2010·2.37 MB·English

by  Dr Emma Smith

THE CAMBRIDGE
COMPANION TO
ENGLISH
RENAISSANCE
TRAGEDY
EDITED BY
EMMA SMITH AND GARRETT A. SULLIVAN JR
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CCOL9780521519373.020
Cambridge Companions Online © Cambridge University Press, 2015
the cambridge companion to
english renaissance tragedy
Featuring essays by major international scholars, this Companion combines
analysis of themes crucial to Renaissance tragedy with the interpretation of
canonicalandfrequentlytaughttexts.Partiintroduceskeytopics,suchasreli-
gion,revengeandthefamily,anddiscussesmodernperformancetraditionson
stageandscreen.BridgingthissectionwithPart iiisachapterwhichengages
withShakespeare.IttacklesShakespeare’sgenericdistinctivenessandhowour
familiaritywithShakespeareantragedyaffectsourappreciationofthetragedies
ofhiscontemporaries.IndividualessaysinPartiiintroduceandcontributeto
important critical conversations about specific tragedies. Topics include The
Revenger’sTragedyandthetheatricsofOriginalSin,ArdenofFavershamand
the preternatural, and The Duchess of Malfi and the erotics of literary form.
Providingfreshreadingsofkeytexts,theCompanionisanessentialguidefor
allstudentsofRenaissancetragedy.
emma smith isFellowandTutorinEnglishatHertfordCollege,University
ofOxford.
garrett a. sullivan jr isProfessorofEnglishatPennStateUniversity.
Acompletelistofbooksinthisseriesisatthebackofthisbook.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CCOL9780521519373.020
Cambridge Companions Online © Cambridge University Press, 2015
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CCOL9780521519373.020
Cambridge Companions Online © Cambridge University Press, 2015
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Cambridge Companions Online © Cambridge University Press, 2015
CONTENTS
Listofillustrations pagevii
Listofcontributors viii
Preface ix
Chronology xi
part i themes
1 EnglishRenaissancetragedy:theoriesandantecedents 3
mike pincombe
2 Tragedy,familyandhousehold 17
catherine richardson
3 Tragedyandthenationstate 30
andrew hadfield
4 Tragedyandreligion 44
alison shell
5 Tragedyandrevenge 58
tanya pollard
6 Tragicsubjectivities 73
garrett a. sullivan jr
7 Tragicforms 86
lucy munro
8 Tragedyandperformance 102
lois potter
v
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Cambridge Companions Online © Cambridge University Press, 2015
contents
9 Renaissancetragedyonfilm:defyingmainstreamShakespeare 116
pascale aebischer
10 Shakespeareandearlymoderntragedy 132
emma smith
part ii readings
11 TheSpanishTragedyandmetatheatre 153
gregory m. colo´n semenza
12 DoctorFaustus:dramaturgyanddisturbance 163
mark thornton burnett
13 EdwardII:Marlowe,tragedyandthesublime 174
patrick cheney
14 ArdenofFaversham:tragicactionatadistance 188
mary floyd-wilson
15 TheRevenger’sTragedy:OriginalSinandthealluresofvengeance 200
heather hirschfeld
16 TheTragedyofMariam:politicallegitimacyandmaternal
authority 211
mary beth rose
17 TheChangelingandthedynamicsofugliness 222
gordon mcmullan
18 TheDuchessofMalfi:tragedyandgender 236
judith haber
19 ’TisPityShe’saWhore:theplayofintertextuality 249
emily c. bartels
Index 261
vi
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Cambridge Companions Online © Cambridge University Press, 2015
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
1 AnnabellaandSoranzo’s‘quer’/queerlovescene(’TisPityShe’sa
Whore,1971) page120
2 Rosemaryforremembrance(TheCook,TheThief,HisWife&
HerLover,1989) 122
3 Beatrice-Joanna’sbloodiedlegshangingoutofhercarriage
(TheChangeling,1998) 126
4 HeathcoteWilliamsasBosolaspyingontheDuchessinherbedroom
(Hotel,2001) 128
5 MasshysteriainthestreetasAntonio’sgriefoverhisladyis
broadcast(RevengersTragedy,2002) 129
6 ChristopherEccleston’sVindicewiththeiconicLiverbuildinginthe
background(RevengersTragedy,2002) 130
vii
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CCOL9780521519373.020
Cambridge Companions Online © Cambridge University Press, 2015
CONTRIBUTORS
pascale aebischer, UniversityofExeter
emily c. bartels, RutgersUniversity,NewJersey
mark thornton burnett, Queen’sUniversity,Belfast
patrick cheney, PennStateUniversity
mary floyd-wilson, UniversityofNorthCarolina
judith haber, TuftsUniversity,Massachusetts
andrew hadfield, UniversityofSussex
heather hirschfeld, UniversityofTennessee,Knoxville
gordon mcmullan, King’sCollegeLondon
lucy munro, UniversityofKeele
mike pincombe, UniversityofNewcastle
tanya pollard, GraduateCenterandBrooklynCollege,CUNY
lois potter, UniversityofDelaware
catherine richardson, UniversityofKent
mary beth rose, UniversityofIllinoisatChicago
gregory m. colo´n semenza, UniversityofConnecticut
alison shell, UniversityofDurham
emma smith, HertfordCollege,Oxford
garrett a. sullivan jr, PennStateUniversity
viii
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Cambridge Companions Online © Cambridge University Press, 2015
PREFACE
A1619elegyonthedeathofthetragicactorRichardBurbagemourns:‘He’s
gone,andwithhimwhataworldaredead/Whichherevived,toberevive´d
so!’, playing on the multiple ironies of memorialising a man renowned for
dyingandreviving,overandoveragain.Thattragedythrivesonthesepara-
doxical impulses towards death and animation, and that tragedy manages
simultaneouslytocodifyitsowntimeandtotranscendthattime,arekeyto
our interests in this Companion to English Renaissance Tragedy. The con-
tributors to this volume of newly commissioned essays attest to the lively
worldofearlymoderntragedy,andtotheongoinglivesinperformanceand
criticismofagenreoftenovershadowedbyShakespeare’sreputation.
Part i moves through the formal and cultural coordinates of early mod-
ern tragedy, identifying the variety of its forms and its engagement with
earlymodernliteratureandcultures:judicial,social,political,theatricaland
intellectual. Renaissance tragedies are not merely interesting historically,
however: we also include important new essays on modern performance
on stage and film. Contributors to this section draw on a range of familiar
andless-familiartextswiththeaimofsituatingspecificplayswithinbroader
interpretativecontexts.InPartiithefocusshiftstoreadingsofspecificplays.
We have deliberately chosen those plays most anthologised, most studied
andmostavailable,andcommissionedessayswhichcombineaclosetextual
study and up-to-date scholarship in demonstrating modes of reading that
canbeassimilatedandappliedtodifferentplays.
What emerges from this collection is a sense of tragic range: chrono-
logical, from Mike Pincombe’s work on medieval antecedents right up to
LoisPotter’sanalysisofcontemporarytheatre;methodological,fromPatrick
Cheney’s use of Longinus on the sublime to Pascale Aebischer on Kristeva
via Mary Beth Rose on Hobbes; and spatial, from ideas of the nation
in Andrew Hadfield’s essay to the household in Catherine Richardson’s.
Generic questions about tragedy and religion get specifically historicised
answers in essays by Mary Floyd-Wilson and Alison Shell; an attention
ix
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Cambridge Companions Online © Cambridge University Press, 2015
preface
to plural tragedies over tragedy marks out Lucy Munro’s contribution.
Performance, play and metatheatricality are key to the work of Heather
Hirschfeld,GregorySemenzaandTanyaPollard;JudithHaberandGordon
McMullan’stextseachanatomisethegenreoftragedyitself;MarkBurnett
makesverbaldetailspeaktowiderconcerns.Shakespeareappearsinessays
by Emma Smith, Garrett Sullivan and Emily Bartels, but doesn’t steal the
scene: his work provides us with a reference point rather than an unexam-
inedideal.
Lamentingthedearthofearlymoderntragediesincontemporarycinema,
Alex Cox, director of Revengers Tragedy (2002), remarks on the appetite
ofmodernstageaudiencesfortheseplays‘becausethey’resexuallycharged,
violent,dramatic,political,fearless,andfunny–oftenallatonce’.1Intaking
advantage of the exciting scholarship and theatre of the last two decades,
we hope that this Companion will develop these, and other attractions of
Renaissancetragedy.
Unless otherwise cited, references to Shakespeare are taken from the
OxfordShakespeare,ed.StanleyWellsandGaryTaylor(2ndedn,Oxford:
ClarendonPress,2005).Allwebsiteswereaccessedon2May2009.
NOTE
1 AlexCox,‘StageFright’,TheGuardian,9August2002.
x
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CCOL9780521519373.020
Cambridge Companions Online © Cambridge University Press, 2015