Early Theatre

Bringing ‘Such Matters Upon the Stage’: Women Exemplars in A Warning for Fair Women (1599) and Golding’s A Briefe Discourse (1573)

2023-07-10T18:32:01+00:00

This essay argues that the unnamed playwright of the 1599 tragedy A Warning for Fair Women adapts Arthur Golding’s 1573 (rpt 1577) pamphlet to reshape the heroine from a negative example of adultery and the beneficiary of church-induced repentance into a positive model of motherhood and spiritual agency aided by another woman. Missing from Golding’s account, the play’s main source and the fount of subsequent reportage on the murder of George Sanders, is attention to women’s spiritual agency and their friendship. I compare the play and source text to argue that the playwright’s emendations of Golding’s material omit or minimize certain elements, including the moralizing tone, to advance a more positive view of women than critics have recognized.

The Queen in Shakespeare’s Q1 Hamlet

2023-07-11T15:50:41+00:00

Although long maligned, the 1603 first quarto of Shakespeare’s Hamlet (Q1) portrays a strong queen and mother figure in Gertred, specifically in a scene that is unique to this version of the play. While some grant that Gertred may be a more sympathetic character than her counterpart Gertrard in the second quarto (Q2) or Gertrude in the Folio (F), critics generally neglect the Q1-only scene involving her and Horatio, finding it repetitious and dull. This essay’s close reading of this scene shows that Gertred excels at diplomatic intrigue, building strategic alliances through a distinctive politics of motherhood.

The Politics of Sport: John Day's The Isle of Gulls

2021-11-18T20:28:48+00:00

This article explores three scenes in John Day’s understudied satiric drama The Isle of Gulls, reading the royal hunt, game of bowls, and double jest as examples of a cultural phenomenon that disguises politics as recreation.

Chaste, Fair, and Bountiful: Marston, Fletcher, and the Countess of Huntingdon’s Patronage

2023-01-29T23:18:44+00:00

This essay uncovers the influences of Elizabeth Stanley Hastings, countess of Huntingdon (1588-1633), on household and commercial drama. John Marston’s Ashby entertainment (1607) and John Fletcher’s The Faithful Shepherdess (ca 1608) show how Huntingdon drew upon family tradition and conventional ideals of beauty to facilitate her rise as a patron. A focus on patronage reveals these plays’ shared emphasis on feminine authority within traditional roles. More broadly, this essay urges scholars to reconceive women patrons as co-makers of plays and value their important contributions to theatrical production.

The Elder Brother, Virgil’s De apibus, and the Chronology of the Plays in the Canon of John Fletcher and His Collaborators, 1617–20

2023-12-13T01:43:19+00:00

This article argues that John Brinsley's 1620 translation of Virgil's Georgics, Book IV, is a source for John Fletcher and Philip Massinger's The Elder Brother. This contention results in dating the play to 1620 rather than 1618 as suggested by Martin Wiggins. The re-dating has consequences for the dating of other plays in the canon of Fletcher and his collaborators for the period 1617 to 1620, and I propose a new chronology for the Fletcher plays in this time span.

Editorial

2024-04-18T17:59:01+00:00

This editorial for issue 27.1 (June 2024) of Early Theatre offers news and information to readers.

Noémie Ndiaye. Scripts of Blackness: Early Modern Performance Culture and the Making of Race. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2022, and Emily Weissbourd. Bad Blood: Staging Race Between Early Modern England and Spain. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2023.

2024-04-09T02:01:10+00:00

This review considers Noémie Ndiaye, Scripts of Blackness: Early Modern Performance Culture and the Making of Race, and Emily Weissbourd, Bad Blood: Staging Race Between Early Modern England and Spain.

Vanessa I. Corredera. Reanimating Shakespeare’s Othello in Post-Racial America. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2022.

2024-04-08T02:25:10+00:00

This review considers Vanessa I Corredera's Reanimating Shakespeare’s Othello in Post-Racial America.

Cristina Paravano. Massinger’s Italy: Re-Imagining Italian Culture in the Plays of Philip Massinger. New York: Routledge, 2023.

2024-04-11T05:23:28+00:00

This review considers Cristina Paravano's Massinger’s Italy: Re-Imagining Italian Culture in the Plays of Philip Massinger.

Chris Laoutaris. Shakespeare’s Book: The Intertwined Lives Behind the First Folio. London: William Collins, 2023.

2024-04-09T08:25:09+00:00

This review considers Chris Laoutaris's Shakespeare’s Book: The Intertwined Lives Behind the First Folio.

Hannah August. Playbooks and Their Readers in Early Modern England. New York and London: Routledge, 2022.

2024-04-09T17:27:54+00:00

This review considers Hannah August's Playbooks and their Readers in Early Modern England.

Callan Davies. What Is a Playhouse? England at Play, 1520-1620. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, 2023.

2024-04-08T15:02:48+00:00

This review considers Callan Davies's What Is a Playhouse? England at Play, 1520-1620.

Harry R. McCarthy. Performing Early Modern Drama Beyond Shakespeare: Edward’s Boys. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020.

2024-04-12T23:52:21+00:00

This review considers Harry R. McCarthy's Performing Early Modern Drama Beyond Shakespeare: Edward’s Boys.

Simon Smith and Emma Whipday, eds. Playing and Playgoing in Early Modern England: Actor, Audience and Performance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2022.

2024-04-09T05:03:19+00:00

This review considers Simon Smith and Emma Whipday's Playing and Playgoing in Early Modern England: Actor, Audience and Performance.

Sophie Tomlinson, ed. The Family of Love by Lording Barry. Manchester: Manchester University Press, The Revels Plays, 2022.

2024-04-12T11:17:13+00:00

This review considers Sophie Tolimlinson's edition of The Family of Love by Lording Barry.

Katherine Gillen, Adrianna M. Santos, and Kathryn Vomero Santos, eds. The Bard in the Borderlands: An Anthology of Shakespeare Appropriations of Shakespeare / Appropriations en La Frontera. Vol. 1. ACMRS Press. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2023.

2024-04-12T11:22:13+00:00

This review considers The Bard in the Borderlands: An Anthology of Shakespeare Appropriations of Shakespeare / Appropriations en La Frontera edited by Katherine Gillen, Adrianna M. Santos, and Kathryn Vomero Santos.