Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 articles from March 2004

Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 archives from March 2004

Status, sodomy, and the theater in Marlowe's Edward II.(Christopher Marlowe)(Critical Essay)
March 22, 2004... Stephen Orgel contends "that English Renaissance culture does not appear to have had a morbid fear of male homoerotic behavior." (1) Similarly, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick argues that homosexual practice during the period did not constitute a threat...

Castrating the creditor in The Merchant of Venice.(The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare)(Critical Essay)
March 22, 2004... In 1596, one of the probable dates for the first production of The Merchant of Venice, (1) Shakespeare's father acquired a coat of arms. Biographical tradition has it that the playwright underwrote this move up the social ladder. (2) By...

Disowning knowledge of Jessica, or Shylock's skepticism.(The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare)(Critical Essay)
March 22, 2004... What motivates Shylock? If the answer were as simple as Shylock himself would have us believe--hatred and ducats--he would not loom over the collective imagination of those who have encountered him. If he were merely a figure from a morality...

Cannibalism and the act of revenge in Tudor-Stuart drama.(Much Ado about Nothing by William Shakespeare)(Critical Essay)
March 22, 2004... BENEDICK. By my sword, Beatrice, thou lovest me. BEATRICE. Do not swear and eat it. BENEDICK. I will swear by it that you love me, and I will make him eat it that says I love not you. Much Ado about Nothing, IV.i.272-5 ...

Public justice and private mercy in Measure for Measure.(William Shakespeare)(Critical Essay)
March 22, 2004... As the only one of Shakespeare's plays to carry a biblical title, Measure for Measure draws on an explicitly Christian body of thought about law, mercy, justice, and the right exercise of authority. The pervasive influence of the Sermon on the...

"Bearing hence" Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale.(William Shakespeare)(Critical Essay)
March 22, 2004... Hitherto unexplored wordplay in the early acts of The Winter's Tale involving forms of the word "bear" deepens our understanding of the importance for the play's design of a bear's notorious onstage pursuit and reported devouring of Antigonus....

The severed hand in Webster's Duchess of Malfi.(John Webster)(Critical Essay)
March 22, 2004... With the ascendancy of cultural studies, the purpose and significance of source study in literary criticism has become less certain. At the time that R. W. Dent wrote John Webster's Borrowing in 1960, he declared that the purpose of source...

Cross-dressing, gender, and absolutism in the Beaumont and Fletcher plays.(Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher)(Critical Essay)
March 22, 2004... The most anxious and confrontational political statement in the 1647 folio of the plays of Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher is a blank space. In one of many prefatory poems by many authors, Thomas Peyton expresses his fear that his praise of...

Unraveling Beaumont from Fletcher with music, misogyny, and masque.(Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher)(Critical Essay)
March 22, 2004... Great pair of authors, whom one equal star Begot so like in genius, that you are In fame, as well as writings, both so knit That no man knows where to divide your wit --Jasper Mayne, from the preface to the 1647 Beaumont and...

Recent studies in Tudor and Stuart drama.(Bibliography)
March 22, 2004... This year's publications continue important conversations about shared issues of concern to all of us in the field. Although I can discern no seismic break with criticism from last year, work that hitherto might have inclined in more narrowly...

Cross-dressing, gender, and absolutism in the Beaumont and Fletcher plays.(Abstracts)(Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2004... Cross-dressing in the Beaumont and Fletcher canon marks anxieties or conflicted ideas about royal absolutism. Love's Cure, The Loyal Subject, Philaster, and The Maid's Tragedy display anxiety about the intersection of gender and authority....

Recent studies in Tudor and Stuart drama.(Abstracts)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2004... An assessment of recent scholarly work treating 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.

Unraveling Beaumont from Fletcher with music, misogyny, and masque.(Abstracts)(Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2004... Contrary to critical beliefs that Beaumont and Fletcher's collaboration was seamless, and that Fletcher contributed most of the scenes involving music and masque, by closely reading both original music for the plays and the texts themselves,...

"Bearing hence" Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale.(Abstracts)(William Shakespeare)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2004... Wordplay in The Winter's Tale involving forms of the word "bear" deepens our understanding for the play's design of a bear's onstage pursuit and reported devouring of Antigonus. Among other things, this wordplay suggests that Camillo's...

Public justice and private mercy in Measure for Measure.(Abstracts)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2004... Measure for Measure is informed by contemporary debates about interpretation of the Sermon on the Mount, from which the play takes its title. The Anabaptists interpreted "judge not" to mean that no Christian could pass judgment upon another,...

Castrating the creditor in The Merchant of Venice.(Abstracts)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2004... The castration references surrounding Merchant's creditors represent dependents' fantasies of selves free of social inscription in an inheritance-based economy. Antonio's castration is an "unmanning," part of an early modern perception of the...

Cannibalism and the act of revenge in Tudor-Stuart drama.(Abstracts)(compares John Marston's Antonio's Revenge with William Shakespeare's Hamlet)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2004... This essay studies the persistence of cannibalism as a specter authorizing the act of revenge in Tudor-Stuart drama. A discussion of the discursive tradition of revenge as inherently masculine and the demonization of female desire as...

Disowning knowledge of Jessica, or Shylock's skepticism.(Abstracts)(The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2004... Stanley Cavell's idea of a skeptical trajectory offers a new way to understand Shylock's fanatical quest for certainty. Cavell's view that skepticism is experienced as a crisis of global doubt inviting a range of responses helps us to see...

Status, sodomy, and the theater in Marlowe's Edward II.(Abstracts)(Christopher Marlowe)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2004... While critics of Marlowe's Edward II have seen the play as an "unwitting tribute" to the dominant ideology or an iconoclastic rewriting of sexual politics, sodomy in the play constitutes a pragmatic strategy of representational ambivalence. On...

The severed hand in Webster's Duchess of Malfi.(Abstracts)(John Webster)(Brief Article)
March 22, 2004... This essay adduces a new source for John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi--Henry Boguet's extremely popular Discourse execrable des sorciers. Boguet's chapter "Of the Metamorphosis of Men into Beasts" provides a strong link to the dead-man's hand...