Tudor Drama Research Articles

Recent Studies in Tudor and Stuart Drama

Recent Studies in Tudor and Stuart Drama

Elaine Scarry. Naming Thy Name: Cross Talk in Shakespeare’s Sonnets. New York: Ferrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2016. 304 pp.

Previous articleNext article No AccessThe CI ReviewElaine Scarry. Naming Thy Name: Cross Talk in Shakespeare’s Sonnets. New York: Ferrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2016. 304 pp.David BevingtonDavid Bevington Search for more articles by this author David Bevington is the Phyllis Fay Horton Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus in the Humanities at the University of Chicago. His books include From “Mankind” to Marlowe (1962), Tudor Drama and Politics (1968), Action Is Eloquence (1985), Shakespeare: The Seven Ages of Human Experience (2005), This Wide and Universal Theater: Shakespeare in Performance, Then and Now (2007), Shakespeare’s Ideas (2008), Shakespeare and Biography (2010), and Murder Most Foul: “Hamlet” Through the Ages (2011). He is the editor of Medieval Drama (1975), The Bantam Shakespeare, and The Complete Works of Shakespeare (2014). He is a senior editor of the Revels Student Editions, the Revels Plays, The Norton Anthology of Renaissance Drama, and The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Ben Jonson (2012).PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Critical Inquiry Volume 44, Number 3Spring 2018 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/696901 Views: 183Total views on this site © 2018 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved. For permission to reuse, contact [email protected]PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Recent Studies in Tudor and Stuart Drama

An assessment of recent scholarly work treating the literature of Tudor and Stuart Drama and some general observations on the state of the profession. A full bibliography and price list of works received by SEL for consideration follow.

Tudor Shakespeare: Taking the Long View

AbstractTudor literature, especially texts written between 1530 and 1580, has been understudied by scholars. But Shakespeare was born and came of age in Tudor England, and his work is influenced by the drama and politics of this period. Reading Tudor drama alongside Shakespearean drama helps us better examine the way that various ideas and dramatic techniques developed across the 16th century. Attention to Tudor drama and its relationship to Shakespeare helps us rethink scholarly periodization and the social, religious, and theatrical changes and continuities of the long 16th century.

Recent Studies in Tudor and Stuart Drama

An assessment of recent scholarly work treating the literature of Tudor and Stuart Drama and some general observations on the state of the profession. A full bibliography and price list of works received by SEL for consideration follow.

The Oxford Anthology of Tudor Drama ed. by Greg Walker

Reviewed by: The Oxford Anthology of Tudor Drama ed. by Greg Walker Patrick J. Murray (bio) keywords Tudor period, drama, anthology, Shakespeare, seventeenth-century playwrights The Oxford Anthology of Tudor Drama. Edited by Greg Walker. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014. 736pages. $150.00. “What’s in a name?” one of the writers included in this new volume famously asks. Quite a lot, actually. Books must never be judged solely by their title, but appellations attending anthologies are always revealing. Primarily (and helpfully), anthology titles tell us what sort of literature the book contains. More subtly, however, they also make claims about that literature. As Ruth Ahnert observes, anthologies, through their paratextual apparatus such as titles, are forms of “textual incarceration” (147) constructing divisions that may be subjective and/or temporal. The Oxford Anthology of Tudor Drama incorporates such classifications, assembling selected works of dramatic character produced during the “long Tudor century (1485–1603)” (v). As well as these categorizations, this newly- published compilation is based upon a particular premise. It attempts to contest the notion of a progressivist development of the dramatic arts in the Tudor age. In a concise overview exploring such facets as the conditions of the performance, the practicalities of stagecraft, contemporary reception, and the impacts of the shifting religious landscape (in particular the effects of the English Reformation on the style and substance of dramatic presentation), Greg Walker’s editorial introduction sets out his anthology’s manifesto. Specifically, he argues for an achronological consideration of Tudor dramaturgy. “I am not suggesting,” he writes, “ . . . that we replace the traditional evolutionary model of the transition from Mankind to Marlowe with a new orthodoxy that sees the sixteenth century as a period of steady decline from the avant garde experimentation and meta-theatrics of the 1490s” (3). Instead of a teleological narrative, Walker endeavours to establish a more sophisticated understanding of the development of the period’s dramaturgy. What is emphasised is a need for a sensitivity regarding how the passage of time can engender artistic forfeitures [End Page 137] as well as gains: “[I]t would seem both intellectually and culturally beneficial periodically at least to consider the story from the other way around, and to ask, not only what had been achieved by the 1590s, but also what had been lost” (3). More pointedly, Walker states that “[t]his anthology will allow readers to look afresh at the treasures of the long Tudor century of drama” (11). Proffering a chance to “look afresh” at long-established texts is a noble enterprise, and should be commended. Iconoclasticism, as well as iconodulism, are vital components of a vibrant intellectual, social, and cultural discourse, and editorship that seeks to re-present established works should always bring something new to the stage. It is therefore surprising that despite Walker’s claims, this anthology does not quite accord with the innovative intent of its editor. Notwithstanding a conscious striving for a novel view of the oeuvre at its disposal, a sense of tradition and thus convention pervades the volume. The anthology has few, if any, radical inclusions, comprising some of the most well-known, widely proliferated, and frequently performed dramaturgical texts from the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries. Many of the plays have enjoyed recent renditions, both in print (the York pageant plays, for example, have been included in a recent edition published by the Early English Text Society) and on stage (the writings of Shakespeare, Marlowe, and Kyd continue to enjoy popular exposure in theatres around the globe). Furthermore, Walker’s call to consider the theatrical literature of the Tudor age “the other way around” is confounded by a chronological ordering of the playtexts. Consequently, The Oxford Anthology begins with medieval pageants such as the York Pageant of The Fall of the Angels (pre-1415–1569) (14–19) and moves through the mid-sixteenth century via classically influenced works such as Jasper Heywood’s Thyestis (1560) and Richard Edwards’s Damon and Pythias (1564–65) before concluding with major playwrights such as Marlowe (the first part of Tamburlaine), Kyd (The Spanish Tragedy) and (the most canonical of them all) Shakespeare (Titus Andronicus and The Comedy of Errors). While Walker is careful...

Introduction: Why Attend to Earlier Tudor Drama?

While the past two decades have seen the publication of excellent new scholarship about and resources for the study of earlier Tudor drama, much of this work continues to stress the historical and performance contexts for plays from the first half of the sixteenth century. The four essays in this Issues in Review demonstrate and call for new approaches to this material by featuring repertory studies, ecocritical readings, manuscript studies, and digital humanities approaches.

The Oxford Handbook of Tudor Drama ed. by Thomas Betteridge and Greg Walker

The Oxford Handbook of Tudor Drama ed. by Thomas Betteridge and Greg Walker

'To see the Playes of Theatre newe wrought': Electronic Editions and Early Tudor Drama

This article considers the challenges and opportunities associated with electronic editions of early Tudor drama, as well as the new modes of scholarship enabled by their creation.

New Contexts for Early Tudor Plays: William Briton, an Early Reader of <em>Gorboduc</em>

By examining William Briton’s extracts from Gorboduc in the Houghton manuscript (BL Add MS 61822), Estill shows how the political valences of Sackville and Norton’s play changed in relation to the Elizabethan succession crisis. This essay explores the play's afterlife in Briton’s commonplace book, contextualized as both a political guidebook and literary work. Briton’s manuscript offers hitherto overlooked evidence of one early modern reader’s response to Gorboduc . Ultimately, Estill contends that early Tudor drama should be considered in changing historical contexts and not as fixed works tied solely to an original moment of publication and performance.

The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare and Contemporary Dramatists ed. by Ton Hoenselaars, and: The Oxford Handbook of Tudor Drama ed. by Thomas Betteridge, Greg Walker (review)

The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare and Contemporary Dramatists ed. by Ton Hoenselaars, and: The Oxford Handbook of Tudor Drama ed. by Thomas Betteridge, Greg Walker (review)

Neighbor Hob and neighbor Lob

Drawing on scholars like Paula Blank, Janette Dillon and Tim Machan, this article argues that, in the Tudor university and court plays of Shakespeare’s youth, the stigmatization of non-standard, dialect speakers demonstrates a cultural renegotiation of the contemporary linguistic climate. By defining the English language and the English people not against a foreign Other, but rather against the domestic, servile, and dialect-speaking Other, sixteenth-century playwrights demonstrated the threat of non-standard speaking and advocated the standardization of language through education while effecting cultural change through negative reinforcement. Keywords: Tudor drama; interludes; history of English language; dialect; university grammarians

Recent Studies in Tudor and Stuart Drama

An assessment of recent scholarly work treating the literature of Tudor and Stuart Drama and some general observations on the state of the profession. A full bibliography and price list of the works received by SEL for consideration follow.

Recent Studies in Tudor and Stuart Drama

Recent Studies in Tudor and Stuart Drama

Recent Studies in Tudor and Stuart Drama

An assessment of recent scholarly work treating the literature of Tudor and Stuart drama and some general observations on the state of the profession. A full bibliography and price list of the works received by SEL for consideration follow.

David Bevington, Shakespeare: The Seven Ages of Human Experience, 2nd edn. Pp. xi + 264. Oxford and Maldon, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 2005. Paperbound £15.99 (ISBN 1 4051 2753 8).

DAVID BEVINGTON has produced a major edition of Shakespeare's works and seminal books on the Tudor drama. A fine interpreter of Shakespeare, he has an astonishing knowledge of the dramatis personae, social situations, relationships, and mass of detail in the dramas, and yet after decades of teaching he is involved in urgent adjustments to what he gathers from ‘superb students’. This book is very readable, never insistent, but surprising and occasionally shocking. It seems written by a relaxed wizard. It first appeared in 2001; the present edition swells key sections and adds a new chapter on ‘Shakespeare Today’, with vivid material about our great diversity of interpretations of Shakespeare's works, and about the author's classroom experience. We live, he says, in a time of revolution, far from the Elizabethans. Shakespeare bridges the gap; his plays not only answer our questions but question our answers. Bevington sets out to explore that pertinence freshly, and uses Jaques’ ‘Seven Ages of Man’ speech in As You Like It as a frame.

Intrigue and Treason: The Tudor Court, 1547–1558

Intrigue and Treason: The Tudor Court, 1547–1558, by David Loades (Harlow: Pearson Education, 2004; pp. 326. £19.99). For many years historians treated the twelve years between the death of Henry VIII and the accession of Elizabeth I as the interval between the first and second acts of the Tudor drama. In his influential Penguin history, S.T. Bindoff labelled them ‘Left-turn and Right-about Face’, contradictory and brief digressions from a correct script. The last forty years, however, have seen a burgeoning of mid-Tudor studies, in part because the reigns of the Henrys and Elizabeth appeared too well-worked, but also because it was realised that intervals can produce significant changes in scenery. David Loades was one of the earliest and most significant scene shifters, and his oeuvre is now very considerable. Perhaps, one wonders initially with this latest book, an oeuvre too considerable. Readers will be surprised that for many of the expected episodes, it refers them to fuller accounts published previously. The reason for this, as Loades reveals in the last chapter, is narrowness of the definitions he is applying. Treason is defined as ‘in the normal sense, plotting the death or overthrow of the incumbent monarch’. Intrigue is restricted to intrigue at court. Thus aristocratic manoeuvres under Edward do not qualify because they owed nothing to the personal intervention of the king. Only limited attention is given to the machinations of Henry VIII's executors in the early months of Edward's reign and there is no mention of the desire of leading peers to get rid of Somerset long before the autumn of 1549. Instead, Somerset's fall is ascribed to his failure to act with restraint and discretion (p. 52) with no mention of the complaint that, following a coup in March 1547, he had felt himself freed of his earlier promise to act only with the majority consent of the council. As for what contemporaries had no doubt was treason—the Lady Jane Grey affair—this is described as ‘fought out partly in the council and partly in the country, and as a political entity the court was virtually in abeyance’. We are also told that ‘Northumberland and Mary were confronted with numerous protests and conspiracies, but none of these had either root or flower in the court’ and that ‘Mary's court seems to have been remarkably free from plotting and faction, and completely free from anything that could be called treason’. Under Elizabeth, the first court conspiracy was the attempt to remove Cecil in 1568–9 and the nearest thing to treason was the Ridolphi plot. In place of the attention to what others might have defined as treason and intrigue, Loades gives space to some issues generally passed over quickly. A welcome chapter called ‘Educating and entertaining a prince’ strengthens the case for seeing William Thomas as Edward's ‘politics tutor’ and provides a useful overview of the court revels provided for him, though more, perhaps, should have been made of Edward's physical activity. He could ride by the age of eight and the summer of 1552 was spent on what Edward bluntly described as ‘the killing of wild beasts’. Like his father he had non-literary interests too, such as music and geography. In dealing with Mary's reign, there is a convincing chapter on Philip and, as one might expect, a perceptive and generally sympathetic portrayal of Mary. Strangely, no comparative use appears to have been made of Pam Wright's work on Elizabeth's female court, nor, it seems of John Murphy's discussion of the fortunes of the privy chamber in the relevant years. Readers who have not read Loades's 1986 account are provided with a helpful appendix on the structure of the court (but ‘bouge of court’ is defined as dining rights rather than basic rations of bread, beer, light and firing), and a list of its principal officers from 1540 to at least the 1560s. Although entries are not always complete, the index is clear. Twelve quality plates are included, principally portraits, though several of those reproduced are way-off in date—Henry VIII (1536), Elizabeth (c. 1575), Philip II (c. 1580) and Cecil (post-1585). But despite merits the narrow definitions adopted here mean that we do not have a rounded study of mid-Tudor politics.

:The Anatomy of Tudor Literature: Proceedings of the First International Conference of the Tudor Symposium (1998)

Introduction - Tudor literature, drab or tarnished? Part 1 Earlier Tudor literature: subversion in The Towneley Cycle - strategies for evil sceptical historiography - Thomas More's History of Richard III To seek the place where I myself had lost - acts of memory in the poetry of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey William Turner's religious polemic as a polyvalent cultural intervention As a shadow to a - heresy, treason and the law in the 16th century the earliest Tudor witch in print - the examination of John Walsh. Part 2 Elizabethan poetry and prose: revenge of the angel Gabriel - Harvey's A Nobleman's Suit to a Country Maid late Tudor narrative voice(s) - Philip Sidney and Barnaby rich remapping Elizabethan court poetry Philip's Phoenix? - Mary Sidney Herbert and the identity of author veiling Medusa - Arthur's shield in The Fairy Queen fashioning a Tudor body - civility and state-formation in The Fairy Queen and A View of the Present State of Ireland. Part 3 Shakespeare and the drama: the British myth in Tudor drama of clothing and coinage Shakespeare's Henry V - Tudor or Jacobean? the role of body images in the Tudor myth and its subversion in Shakespeare's history plays since forged invention former time defaced - representing Tudor history in the 1590s.

From the Throne of God to the Throne of Man: The Throne as Prop and Allegory in Tudor Drama

From the Throne of God to the Throne of Man: The Throne as Prop and Allegory in Tudor Drama

Recent Studies in Tudor and Stuart Drama

Recent Studies in Tudor and Stuart Drama