Performances of Mourning in Shakespearean Theatre and Early Modern Culture (Early Modern Literature in History)

This bold and wide-ranging study takes a fresh look at a controversial question: what do the acts and shows of grief performed in early modern drama tell us about the religious culture of the world in which they were historically staged? Many rites of mourning shown in the theatre held Catholic resonances, but how did such memories of traditional worship work in post-Reformation England? Drawing on performance studies, this book provides detailed readings of major playtexts, Shakespearean and others, to explore the politics, pathologies, physiologies and parodies of mourning. Cover......Page 1 Contents......Page 6 List of Illustrations......Page 7 Acknowledgements......Page 8 A Note on Citation......Page 9 Introduction......Page 10 1.1 Heavens hung with black: Elizabethan rituals of mourning......Page 33 1.2 Remembrance of things past......Page 48 1.3 Memory battles and stage laments......Page 57 1.4 Facing the dead: theatricality and historiography......Page 67 2.1 Well-made partings and the problem of revenge......Page 79 2.2 Translating tradition: The Spanish Tragedy and Titus Andronicus......Page 87 2.3 Foreign funerals and colonial mimesis: historical exchanges......Page 98 2.4 Hamlet and the virtue of assumed custom......Page 109 3.1 Secrets and secretions......Page 119 3.2 Tears and the uncertain signs of inwardness......Page 127 3.3 Rhetoric and the techniques of emotional engineering......Page 133 3.4 Women, widows and mimetic weeping......Page 142 4.1 Mock laments: the play and peal of death......Page 158 4.2 Round about her tomb they go: Much Ado About Nothing......Page 166 4.3 Ralph Roister Doister and the anxiety of borrowed rites......Page 175 4.4 Noting and ghosting: what stage parodies do......Page 189 Conclusion......Page 198 Notes......Page 205 Bibliography......Page 210 C......Page 225 G......Page 226 K......Page 227 N......Page 228 Q......Page 229 S......Page 230 W......Page 231 Z......Page 232 Grief And Sadness May Be Personal Feelings, But The Mourner Is A Public Figure Who Must Generally Manifest His Or Her Emotions By Means Of Public Motions And Acknowledged Gestures. How Are These Performed And Validated? What Is The Role Of Custom Or Conventions? And When, According To The Renaissance View Of Passions, Does A Mourner's Visible Behaviour Such As Crying Truly Express Inward States Of Mind? This Book Pursues Such Questions In The Culture Of The Early Modern Theatre. It Looks At Shakespearean History Plays, Elizabethan Revenge Tragedies, Tudor And Early Stuart Comedies In Order To Explore How Their Acts And Shows Of Mourning Relate To The Religious Issues In Post-reformation England When They Were Historically Produced. It Argues That The Playhouse Only Ever Staged - Never Stated - Points Of Doctrine Or Belief, And Yet Offered A Cultural Space Where Memories Of Catholic Rites Could Be Restored, Reiterated Or Reformed In Performance.--jacket. Politics Of Mourning -- Pathologies Of Mourning -- Physiologies Of Mourning -- Parodies Of Mourning. Tobias Döring. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 201-215) And Index. This study takes a look at a controversial question: what do the acts and shows of grief performed in early modern drama tell us about the religious culture of the world in which they were historically staged? Drawing on performance studies, it provides detailed readings of play texts to explore the politics, pathologies and parodies of mourning.