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Many early modern plays use poison, most famously Hamlet, where the
murder of Old Hamlet showcases the range of issues poison
mobilises. Its orchard setting is one of a number of sinister uses
of plants which comment on both the loss of horticultural knowledge
resulting from the Dissolution of the Monasteries and also the many
new arrivals in English gardens through travel, trade, and attempts
at colonisation. The fact that Old Hamlet was asleep reflects
unease about soporifics troubling the distinction between sleep and
death; pouring poison into the ear smuggles in the contemporary
fear of informers; and it is difficult to prove. This book explores
poisoning in early modern plays, the legal and epistemological
issues it raises, and the cultural work it performs, which includes
questions related to race, religion, nationality, gender, and
humans’ relationship to the environment. -- .
This book brings together thirteen essays, by both established and
emerging scholars, which examine the most influential meanings of
roads in early modern literature and culture. Chapters develop our
understanding of the place of the road in the early modern
imagination and open various windows on a geography which may by
its nature seem passing or trivial but is in fact central to all
conceptions of movement. They also shed new light on perhaps the
most astonishing achievement of early modern plays: their use of
one small, bare space to suggest an amazing variety of physical and
potentially metaphysical locations.
Tracks the history of concepts and practices associated with the
physical crossroads in the early modern period Breaks new ground in
the area of literary geography and enhances the historical
understanding of the place of the crossroads in literary and
cultural discourse Unifies various discourses of early modern
culture and subjectivity in terms of the experience and
understanding of the crossroads Locates issues around the ideology
and experience of the road in one specific culturally significant
place Focusing on the crossroads in the early modern period, this
book deals with the literature and history of the physical
crossroads: it's magical and religious encounters, rituals of
transformation, binding of undesirable spirits, siting of gallows,
associations with music, and links to ancient cosmology. Physical
crossroads have been culturally vital sites where forces human,
demonic and divine were felt to converge. Crossroads have seemed to
render the boundaries between these spheres negotiable, subject to
certain artifice and timing. They gave access to gods and
facilitated deals with devils, they were potent sites for rituals
intended to influence lovers or harm enemies and provided both a
dramatic stage for communal activities and a burial ground for the
unwanted dead cast out in ceremonies of the night.
Explores intrinsic connections between early modern intelligencers
and metadrama in the plays of Shakespeare's contemporaries
Intelligence and Metadrama in the Early Modern Theatre offers
insight into why the early modern stage abounds with informer and
intelligencer figures. Analysing both the nature of intelligence at
the time and the metadrama that such characters generate, Angus
highlights the significance of intrigue and corruption to dramatic
narrative and structure. His study of metadrama reveals some of the
most fundamental questions being posed about the legitimacy of
authority, authorship and audience interpretation in this seminal
era of English drama. Key Features Offers insight into the internal
workings and motivations of the drama of Shakespeare's
contemporaries Opens a new window on the ambitions, concerns, and
fears of these important authors Enhances historical understanding
of the place of the intelligencer in the society and the structures
of authority within which the drama was produced
Explores disturbing connections between authors and informers
revealed in the metadrama of Shakespeare and Jonson Have you ever
wondered what was really going on in the inner-plays, secret
overhearing, and tacit observations of early modern drama? Taking
on the shadowy figure of the early modern informer, this book
argues that far more than mere artistic experimentation is
happening here. In case studies of metadramatic plays, and the
devices which Shakespeare and Jonson constantly revisit, this book
offers critical insight into intrinsic connections between
informers and authors, discovering an uneasy sense of common
practice at the core of the metadrama, which drives both its
self-awareness and its paranoia. Drama is most self-revealing at
these moments where it reflects upon its own dramatic register:
where it is most metadramatic. To understand their metadrama is
therefore to understand these most seminal authors in a new way.
Key Features Offers a fresh insight into the internal workings and
motivations of Shakespeare and Jonson's dramatic structures Opens a
new window on the ambitions, concerns, and fears of these important
authors Enhances historical understanding of the structures of
authority within which the drama was produced, and the place of the
informer in those structures
Focusing on the crossroads in the early modern period, this book
deals with the literature and history of the physical crossroads:
it's magical and religious encounters, rituals of transformation,
binding of undesirable spirits, siting of gallows, associations
with music, and links to ancient cosmology. Physical crossroads
have been culturally vital sites where forces human, demonic and
divine were felt to converge. Crossroads have seemed to render the
boundaries between these spheres negotiable, subject to certain
artifice and timing. They gave access to gods and facilitated deals
with devils, they were potent sites for rituals intended to
influence lovers or harm enemies and provided both a dramatic stage
for communal activities and a burial ground for the unwanted dead
cast out in ceremonies of the night.
Explores disturbing connections between authors and informers
revealed in the metadrama of Shakespeare and JonsonHave you ever
wondered what was really going on in the inner-plays, secret
overhearing, and tacit observations of early modern drama? Taking
on the shadowy figure of the early modern informer, this book
argues that far more than mere artistic experimentation is
happening here. In case studies of metadramatic plays, and the
devices which Shakespeare and Jonson constantly revisit, this book
offers critical insight into intrinsic connections between
informers and authors, discovering an uneasy sense of common
practice at the core of the metadrama, which drives both its
self-awareness and its paranoia. Drama is most self-revealing at
these moments where it reflects upon its own dramatic register:
where it is most metadramatic. To understand their metadrama is
therefore to understand these most seminal authors in a new way.Key
FeaturesOffers a fresh insight into the internal workings and
motivations of Shakespeare and Jonson's dramatic structuresOpens a
new window on the ambitions, concerns, and fears of these important
authorsEnhances historical understanding of the structures of
authority within which the drama was produced, and the place of the
informer in those structures
Explores how cultural conceptions of mobility and the road
contribute to identity and culture in early modern Britain Opens
new windows on early modern culture, subjectivity and perceptions
around the experience of the road and how that shapes the idea of
the road itself Offers insight into the ways both the bare boards
of the stage and prose narratives were used to imagine road
journeys and the intersections between public and private space
Enhances historical understanding of the literal place of theatre
in the road networks around early modern London Provides a crucial
ligature in English literary and cultural history. The present
plays and prose are prolegomena to the travel literature of
Montagu, Swift, Boswell and Johnson in the Hebrides, Sterne's
Sentimental Journey, Fielding's Tom Jones, and peripatetic Civil
War narratives This book brings together thirteen essays, by both
established and emerging scholars, which examine the most
influential meanings of roads in early modern literature and
culture. Chapters develop our understanding of the place of the
road in the early modern imagination and open various windows on a
geography which may by its nature seem passing or trivial but is in
fact central to all conceptions of movement. They also shed new
light on perhaps the most astonishing achievement of early modern
plays: their use of one small, bare space to suggest an amazing
variety of physical and potentially metaphysical locations.
Explores intrinsic connections between early modern intelligencers
and metadrama in the plays of Shakespeare's contemporaries
Intelligence and Metadrama in the Early Modern Theatre offers
insight into why the early modern stage abounds with informer and
intelligencer figures. Analysing both the nature of intelligence at
the time and the metadrama that such characters generate, Angus
highlights the significance of intrigue and corruption to dramatic
narrative and structure. His study of metadrama reveals some of the
most fundamental questions being posed about the legitimacy of
authority, authorship and audience interpretation in this seminal
era of English drama. Key Features Offers insight into the internal
workings and motivations of the drama of Shakespeare's
contemporaries Opens a new window on the ambitions, concerns, and
fears of these important authors Enhances historical understanding
of the place of the intelligencer in the society and the structures
of authority within which the drama was produced
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