Incest, Drama and Nature's Law, 1550-1700

Incest, Drama and Nature's Law, 1550-1700
Author: Richard A. McCabe
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 380
Release: 2008-10-30
Genre: Drama
ISBN: 9780521088749

This is a full-length study of incest in English Renaissance and Restoration drama. Richard McCabe's comprehensive survey offers a literary history of this theme, informed by an investigation of the intellectual background, with particular emphasis on changing concepts of natural law, and consequent reassessments of classical tradition. It examines a wide range of theological, philosophical, legal and literary sources, in the context of modern psychological and sociological theories of family development. Extensive comparisons with classical models and contemporary European dramatists, from Tasso to Corneille and Racine, explore the volatile association between dramatic form and emotional content, structural experiment and sexual ambivalence. The centrality of the family to all human relationships, and the mutual reflection of familial politics and the patriarchal state make incest a powerful metaphor for the ambivalence of all concepts of 'natural' authority, and for various forms of social and political revolt.

The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare's Last Plays

The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare's Last Plays
Author: Catherine M. S. Alexander
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 245
Release: 2009-07-16
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1139828282

Which plays are included under the heading 'Shakespeare's last plays', and when does Shakespeare's 'last' period begin? What is meant by a 'late play', and what are the benefits in defining plays in this way? Reflecting the recent growth of interest in late studies, and recognising the gaps in accessible scholarship on this area, in this book leading international Shakespeare scholars address these and many other questions. The essays locate Shakespeare's last plays - single and co-authored - in the period of their composition, consider the significant characteristics of their Jacobean context, and explore the rich afterlives, on stage, in print and other media of The Winter's Tale, Cymbeline, The Tempest, Pericles, The Two Noble Kinsmen and Henry VIII. The volume opens with a historical timeline that places the plays in the contexts of contemporary political events, theatrical events, other cultural milestones, Shakespeare's life and that of his playing company, the King's Men.

The Collected Works of John Ford

The Collected Works of John Ford
Author: Brian Vickers
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 653
Release: 2023-07-20
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0192689398

Volume IV of the Collected Works of John Ford is the first of two volumes in the series to contain his sole-authored plays. It contains three of his most celebrated plays: 'Tis Pity She's a Whore (1622), The Lovers' Melancholy (1628), and The Broken Heart (1629), as well as the less well-known The Queen (1629). The volume opens with a general introduction to Ford's work as a sole author by Sir Brian Vickers and each play is given a detailed introduction emphasizing Ford's linguistic creativity and his effective use of the indoor private theatres. Authoritative old-spelling texts, freshly edited from the original quartos with full textual collations, are accompanied by a full commentary on all aspects of the plays, from archaic or obsolete words to classical allusions and historical references to people, places, and social customs.

The Plays of John Lyly

The Plays of John Lyly
Author: Michael Pincombe
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Total Pages: 232
Release: 1996
Genre: Courts and courtiers in literature
ISBN: 9780719038587

John Lyly, Shakespeare's forerunner in English comedy, wrote eight highly individual plays. This study of the plays, with each chapter devoted to a different play, concentrates on the courtly aspects of Lyly's work - he wrote all but one of his plays for court performance. In particular, it examines the relationship of Lylian drama to royal panegyric, a kind of writing which he did much to establish. However, the plays also present a parody of panegyric, and thus might also be said to have a counter-courtly aspect.

Bentham, Law and Marriage

Bentham, Law and Marriage
Author: Mary Sokol
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 209
Release: 2011-06-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 1441177205

Jeremy Bentham's law of marriage is firmly based on the principle of utility, which claims that all human actions are governed by a wish to gain pleasure and avoid pain, and on the proposition that men and women are equal. He wrote in a late eighteenth century context of Enlightenment debate about the status of women, marriage and the family, as did his contemporaries Wollstonecraft and More. Bentham responded particularly to the thought of Milton, Locke, Hume, Paley and to the French thinkers Montesquieu, Diderot and Rousseau. These were the turbulent years leading to the French Revolution and it is in this milieu that Mary Sokol seeks to rediscover the 'historical' Bentham. Instead of regarding his thought as 'timeless', she considers Bentham's attitude to the reform of marriage law and plans for the social reform of marriage, placing both his life and work in the philosophical and historical context of his time.

Irregular Unions

Irregular Unions
Author: Katharine Cleland
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 131
Release: 2021-03-15
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1501753487

Katharine Cleland's Irregular Unions provides the first sustained literary history of clandestine marriage in early modern England and reveals its controversial nature in the wake of the Elizabethan Religious Settlement, which standardized the marriage ritual for the first time. Cleland examines many examples of clandestine marriage across genres. Discussing such classic works as The Faerie Queene, Othello, and The Merchant of Venice, she argues that early modern authors used clandestine marriage to explore the intersection between the self and the marriage ritual in post-Reformation England. The ways in which authors grappled with the political and social complexities of clandestine marriage, Cleland finds, suggest that these narratives were far more than interesting plot devices or scandalous stories ripped from the headlines. Instead, after the Reformation, fictions of clandestine marriage allowed early modern authors to explore topics of identity formation in new and different ways. Thanks to generous funding from Virginia Tech and its participation in TOME (Toward an Open Monograph Ecosystem), the ebook editions of this book are available as Open Access volumes from Cornell Open (cornellpress.cornell.edu/cornell-open) and other repositories.

Urgency and Severity: Pauline Rationale for Expulsion in 1 Corinthians 5:1-13

Urgency and Severity: Pauline Rationale for Expulsion in 1 Corinthians 5:1-13
Author: David E. Bosworth
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 326
Release: 2024-05-21
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9004693130

When Paul heard that a Christ-follower in Corinth was in an incestuous relationship with his stepmother, the apostle insisted the man be removed immediately from the congregation. This dramatic response is surprising, as Paul responds to other serious situations with much less vehemence. Why did Paul react to the immoral man with such urgency and severity? Using socio-cultural tools, this study explains the importance of group identity and witness for Paul’s ecclesiology. The argument lays a foundation for contemporary readers to appraise contexts where an expulsive response to sin might be appropriate.

Theatrical Convention and Audience Response in Early Modern Drama

Theatrical Convention and Audience Response in Early Modern Drama
Author: Jeremy Lopez
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 251
Release: 2002-12-05
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1139436678

This book gives a detailed and comprehensive survey of the diverse, theatrically vital formal conventions of the drama of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. Besides providing readings of plays such as Hamlet, Othello, Merchant of Venice, and Titus Andronicus, it also places Shakespeare emphatically within his own theatrical context, and focuses on the relationship between the demanding repertory system of the time and the conventions and content of the plays. Lopez argues that the limitations of the relatively bare stage and non-naturalistic mode of early modern theatre would have made the potential for failure very great, and he proposes that understanding this potential for failure is crucial for understanding the way in which the drama succeeded on stage. The book offers perspectives on familiar conventions such as the pun, the aside and the expository speech; and it works toward a definition of early modern theatrical genres based on the relationship between these well-known conventions and the incoherent experience of early modern theatrical narratives.

Twins in Early Modern English Drama and Shakespeare

Twins in Early Modern English Drama and Shakespeare
Author: Daisy Murray
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 335
Release: 2017-01-06
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1317195701

This volume investigates the early modern understanding of twinship through new readings of plays, informed by discussions of twins appearing in such literature as anatomy tracts, midwifery manuals, monstrous birth broadsides, and chapbooks. The book contextualizes such dramatic representations of twinship, investigating contemporary discussions about twins in medical and popular literature and how such dialogues resonate with the twin characters appearing on the early modern stage. Garofalo demonstrates that, in this period, twin births were viewed as biologically aberrant and, because of this classification, authors frequently attempt to explain the phenomenon in ways which call into question the moral and constitutional standing of both the parents and the twins themselves. In line with current critical studies on pregnancy and the female body, discussions of twin births reveal a distrust of the mother and the processes surrounding twin conception; however, a corresponding suspicion of twins also emerges, which monstrous birth pamphlets exemplify. This book analyzes the representation of twins in early modern drama in light of this information, moving from tragedies through to comedies. This progression demonstrates how the dramatic potential inherent in the early modern understanding of twinship is capitalized on by playwrights, as negative ideas about twins can be seen transitioning into tragic and tragicomic depictions of twinship. However, by building toward a positive, comic representation of twins, the work additionally suggests an alternate interpretation of twinship in this period, which appreciates and celebrates twins because of their difference. The volume will be of interest to those studying Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature in relation to the History of Emotions, the Body, and the Medical Humanities.