identity and autonomy

source text on Duchess’ autonomy - MALFI

• Palace of Pleasure (Painter 1567) - frames her ‘folysh’ as sin

punishment of female autonomy in AS - MALFI

• Lady Arabella Stuart married William Seymour clandestinely in 1610

• imprisoned by James I, died in 1615

silent female autonomy tradition / revered - MALFI

• Seneca’s texts favoured female stoicism

• John Foxe’s Acts and Monuments (1563)

Seneca on virtue and fortune - MALFI

• in De Constantia Sapientis (1st century AD) - argued the truly virtues man is invulnerable to fortune

notable theatrical performances of Malfi - MALFI

• Dominic Dromgoole 2014 starring Gemma Arterton

James I’s cautionary text on ambition/advisers - MALFI

• Basilikon Doron (1599) - warned son against ambitious counsellors who pursue their won advancement at the expense of the prince

the ‘Machiavel’ - MALFI

• cynical, ambitious political operator

lycanthropy linked to humours - MALFI

• associated with excess of melancholic humour

intimate story-telling in the play - MALFI

• use of asides

• first performed in Blackfriars’ indoor theatre (small, intimate)

• use of candles to produce light (which are then extinguished near end of play) - eg in Dromgoole’s 2014 production

Gaelic medicine - MALFI

• four humours determine health

• excess of back bile (= melancholy) → cynicism, isolation, moral pessimism

use of prose in Jacobean drama - MALFI

• associated w madness, low social status and moral complexity

sins Cardinal commits - MALFI

• simony

• lust

• murder

• sometimes used to argue play is anti-catholic - ORazio Busino saw it in 1618 and thought as much

how Duchess contradicts typical revenge tragedies - MALFI

• D is completely unchanged at end

Webster’s interest in classical tradition - MALFI

• preface to The White Devil (1612) - complained about audience’s failure to appreciate intellectual + poetic richness of work

• positions self as writer v interested in classical engagement

moral ambiguity and cynicism - MALFI

• convention on Jacobean stage linked to Jacobean social disillusionment

legality of royal criticism - MALFI

• explicit criticism was sedation and so illegal

views on death - MALFI

• having a ‘good death’ v important as death seen as a continuation of life

• idea even more important post Protestat Reformation

• Learn to Die (Sutton 1601) - best-selling book

wax tablets - MERCHANT

• De Generatione Animalium (Aristotle)

• Aristotle argues that the soul is the "form" (shape/function) of the body, just as an impression is part of the wax itself (rather than a separate entity)

hortus conclus for control - MERCHANT

• the ‘key’ and the wall show Jan’s control/ownership over May

medieval coverture law - MERCHANT

• men owned wives

ideas on consent for marriages - MERCHANT

• Foruth Lateran Coucnil (1215) - required mutual consent

lovesickness - MERCHANT

• amor heroes - a genuine pithily described by Arnaldus de Villanova

love as blind - MERCHANT

• Cupid being blindfolded was standard from 12th century onwards

senex amans - MERCHANT

• old delirious lusty man

Canterbury tales’ pilgrims - MERCHANT

• Knight, Miller, Merchant, Cook

frame narrative - MERCHANT

• means no voice is uncontested?

rota fortunae - MERCHANT

• Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophy (1380) - fortune’s wheel turns most precipitously from the peak

• idea that what goes around comes around

fabliaux purpose - MERCHANT

• suggested that it was to detail why peasants and lower classes don’t rise up the social ladder

• method for nobility to laugh at lower classes

class anxieties in Peasant’s Revolt (1381) - MERCHANT

• triggered by introduction of new flat-rate poll tax as Crown tried to raise money for war w France

• can be argued that Chaucer criticises pervasive attitudes to class through his characters eg Jan and Dam