The Noise of Threatening Drum: Dramatic Strategy and Political Ideology in Shakespeare and the English Chronicle Plays, Volume 10

Front Cover
University of Delaware Press, 1990 - Drama - 172 pages
This work focuses on thirteen English Renaissance plays: the Anonymous Famous Victories of Henry V and Edward III, the apocryphal plays Sir John Oldcastle and Thomas, Lord Cromwell, the pseudo-Shakespearean Edmund Ironside, and Shakespeare's 1, 2, 3 Henry VI, King John, Richard II, 1, 2 Henry IV, and Henry V. Discussed are the spectators in the socially mixed audience who responded differently, depending on individual political biases, and who had to be considered if the plays were to reach the stage.

From inside the book

Contents

The Famous Victories of Henry V
17
The Reign of Edward III
28
Sir John Oldcastle
37
Thomas Lord Cromwell
49
Edmund Ironside
59
The Henry VI Plays
71
King John
88
Richard II
99
The Henriad
110
Conclusion
129
Notes
132
Bibliography
152
Index
165
Copyright

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 113 - that No more the thirsty entrance of this soil Shall daub her lips with her own children's blood, No more shall trenching war channel her fields, Nor bruise her flow'rets with the armed hoofs Of hostile paces. (pt. 1,
Page 124 - look to see The blind and bloody soldier with foul hand [Defile[ the locks of your shrill-shriking daughters; Your fathers taken by the silver beards, And their most reverend heads dash'd to the walls; Your naked infants spitted upon pikes.
Page 125 - ("[I]n loving me, you should love the friend of France; for I love France so well, that I will not part with a village of it; I will have it all mine
Page 119 - The man I do assure you is not here, For I myself at this time have employ'd him. And, sheriff, I will engage my word to thee That I will by to-morrow dinner-time Send him to answer thee.
Page 83 - No; thou art not King; Not fit to govern and rule multitudes, That head of thine doth not become a crown: Thy hand is made to grasp a palmer's staff And not to grace an awef'ul princely
Page 82 - have pluck'd back, By false accuse doth level at my life. And you, my sovereign lady, with the rest, Causeless have laid disgraces on my head, And with your best endeavor have stirr'd up My liefest liege to be mine enemy.
Page 92 - Lewis's final act of treachery is prevented only by the dying Count Melun's revelation to the English lords that they "are bought and sold! . . . He means to recompense the pains you take / By cutting off your heads" (5.4.10, 15-16). The defecting
Page 77 - and Warwick prophesies this brawl to-day, Grown to this faction in the Temple Garden, Shall send between the Red Rose and the White, A thousand souls to death and deadly night. (124-27)
Page 79 - No treachery, but want of men and money. Amongst the soldiers this is muttered, That here you maintain several factions; And whilst a field should be dispatch'd and fought, You are disputing of your generals. One would have ling'ring wars with little cost; Another would fly swift, but wanteth wings; A third thinks, without expense at all, By guileful fair words peace may be obtain'd.

Bibliographic information