The Staging of Romance in Late Shakespeare: Text and Theatrical TechniqueFew plays have both attracted and resisted genre study as strongly as Shakespeare's late plays. The Staging of Romance in Late Shakespeare: Text and Theatrical Technique takes a fresh approach to the role of genre in these plays by placing them in relation to the tradition of staged romance in the early modern English theater. The book argues that Shakespeare's late plays can best be understood as theatrical experiments that extend and reform this tradition, which developed around a group of theatrical techniques that sought to realize the effects of narrative romance in the theatrical medium. Their central effect was the creation of admiration in the spectators for heroic action; the value of the plays within the culture derived from this experience. |
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Page 18
... claims of self - interest are too strong to overcome . If the enactment of virtuous action is to be attempted for spectators holding these views , the per- former must find a way to extend the social practices of virtuous re- solve in a ...
... claims of self - interest are too strong to overcome . If the enactment of virtuous action is to be attempted for spectators holding these views , the per- former must find a way to extend the social practices of virtuous re- solve in a ...
Page 19
... claims : " It is important to recognize ' difficult ' moments , and to see how ro- mance might incorporate purposefully clashing tropes and tradi- tions . But one must go a little further , and renounce expectations that all generic ...
... claims : " It is important to recognize ' difficult ' moments , and to see how ro- mance might incorporate purposefully clashing tropes and tradi- tions . But one must go a little further , and renounce expectations that all generic ...
Page 20
... claims of value , ideas of decorum , even metrical structures ) to achieve the power of action , the mode , that is also a feature of the genre in which they are work- ing . At the same time , they skeptically challenge their opponents ...
... claims of value , ideas of decorum , even metrical structures ) to achieve the power of action , the mode , that is also a feature of the genre in which they are work- ing . At the same time , they skeptically challenge their opponents ...
Page 21
... claims about the human condition against Marina's power of action and her claims . The scene takes the sort of conflict internal to Prospero as he decides what to do with his pris- oners and expands it into an extended dramatic conflict ...
... claims about the human condition against Marina's power of action and her claims . The scene takes the sort of conflict internal to Prospero as he decides what to do with his pris- oners and expands it into an extended dramatic conflict ...
Page 22
... claims about her virtues , and he acts differently than he would have before their dialogue . This resolu- tion presents an interpretive challenge for spectators who are wise , they think , in the ways of the world . If the scene pushes ...
... claims about her virtues , and he acts differently than he would have before their dialogue . This resolu- tion presents an interpretive challenge for spectators who are wise , they think , in the ways of the world . If the scene pushes ...
Contents
11 | |
30 | |
The Development of Dramatic Romance 15701610 | 60 |
Hermione Paulina and Their Audiences The Role of Mimetic Involvements in Transformation | 117 |
Achieved Miracle Completion in Dramatic Romance | 156 |
Unceasing Transformation Further Tests of Romance in The Tempest Henry VIII and The Two Noble Kinsmen | 202 |
Notes | 239 |
Bibliography | 270 |
Index | 287 |
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The Staging of Romance in Late Shakespeare: Text and Theatrical Technique Christopher J. Cobb No preview available - 2007 |
Common terms and phrases
accept achieve action actor appears audience becomes begins body bring Camillo challenge chapter characters claims condition continues court create critics desire dramatic romance early effects efforts emotional enactment English experience feelings final Florizel follow genre give harmony heart Henry Hermione Hermione's heroic heroic action honor human important involvement jealousy kind King language late plays lead Leontes limits lords means mimetic modal mode move nature Noble observation offers opening passion pastoral Paulina Perdita performance Philaster play play's plot political Polixenes possible presents production Prospero question representation represented response reveal rhetoric role scene seems sense Shakespeare shows social sort speaks spectacle spectators speech staging story struggle style suffering suggests Tale techniques Tempest theater theatrical tion tradition tragedy tragic transformation truth turn uncertainty University Press values virtue Winter's Winter's Tale witness
Popular passages
Page 93 - Lear. And my poor fool is hang'd ! No, no, no life ! Why should a dog, a horse, a rat, have life, And thou no breath at all?
Page 52 - ... cometh to you with words set in delightful proportion, either accompanied with, or prepared for, the well-enchanting skill of music; and with a tale, forsooth, he cometh unto you, with a tale which holdeth children from play and old men from the chimney corner...
Page 202 - If by your art, my dearest father, you have Put the wild waters in this roar, allay them : The sky, it seems, would pour down stinking pitch, But that the sea, mounting to the welkin's cheek, Dashes the fire out.
Page 95 - By heaven, methinks it were an easy leap, To pluck bright honour from the pale-fac'd moon ; Or dive into the bottom of the deep, Where fathom-line could never touch the ground, And pluck up drowne'd honour by the locks...
Page 112 - Is it not monstrous, that this player here, But in a fiction, in a dream of passion, Could force his soul so to his own conceit, That, from her working, all his visage wann'd ; Tears in his eyes, distraction in's aspect, A broken voice, and his whole function suiting With forms to his conceit ? And all for nothing...
Page 107 - ... violets, dim, But sweeter than the lids of Juno's eyes, Or Cytherea's breath ; pale primroses, That die unmarried, ere they can behold Bright Phoebus in his strength, a malady Most incident to maids; bold oxlips, and The crown-imperial; lilies of all kinds, The flower-de-luce being one ! O, these I lack, To make you garlands of; and, my sweet friend, To strew him o'er and o'er.
Page 9 - Though with their high wrongs I am struck to the quick, Yet, with my nobler reason, 'gainst my fury Do I take part : the rarer action is In virtue than in vengeance...
Page 94 - Let it be so! thy truth then be thy dower! For, by the sacred radiance of the sun, The mysteries of Hecate and the night; By all the operation of the orbs From whom we do exist and cease to be...
Page 213 - gainst my fury Do I take part. The rarer action is In virtue than in vengeance ; they being penitent, The sole drift of my purpose doth extend Not a frown further.
Page 95 - Cover your heads, and mock not flesh and blood With solemn reverence : throw away respect, Tradition, form, and ceremonious duty, For you have but mistook me all this while: I live with bread like you, feel want, Taste grief, need friends: subjected thus, How can you say to me I am a king?