Roman Women In Shakespeare And His Contemporaries (late Tudor And Stuart Drama)

__Roman Women in Shakespeare and His Contemporaries__ explores the crucial role of Roman female characters in the plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. While much has been written on male characters in the Roman plays as well as on non-Roman women in early modern English drama, very little attention has been paid to the issues of what makes Roman women ‘Roman’ and what their role in those plays is beyond their supposed function as supporting characters for the male protagonists. Through the exploration of a broad array of works produced by such diverse playwrights as Samuel Brandon, William Shakespeare, Matthew Gwynne, Ben Jonson, John Fletcher, Philip Massinger, Thomas May, and Nathaniel Richards under three such different monarchs as Elizabeth I, James I, and Charles I, __Roman Women in Shakespeare and His Contemporaries__ contributes to a more precise assessment of the practices through which female identities were discussed in literature in the specific context of Roman drama and a more nuanced understanding of the ways in which accounts of Roman women were appropriated, manipulated and recreated in early modern England.

Roman Women in Shakespeare and His Contemporaries explores the crucial role of Roman female characters in the plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries. While much has been written on male characters in the Roman plays as well as on non-Roman women in early modern English drama, very little attention has been paid to the issues of what makes Roman women 'Roman' and what their role in those plays is beyond their supposed function as supporting characters for the male protagonists. Through the exploration of a broad array of works produced by such diverse playwrights as Samuel Brandon, William Shakespeare, Matthew Gwynne, Ben Jonson, John Fletcher, Philip Massinger, Thomas May, and Nathaniel Richards under three such different monarchs as Elizabeth I, James I, and Charles I, Roman Women in Shakespeare and His Contemporaries contributes to a more precise assessment of the practices through which female identities were discussed in literature in the specific context of Roman drama and a more nuanced understanding of the ways in which accounts of Roman women were appropriated, manipulated and recreated in early modern England.

Table of Contents Introduction: Roman Women in Early Modern English Drama “Rome’s Rich Ornament”: Lavinia, Commoditization, and the Senses in William Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus Blending Motherhoods: Volumnia and the Representation of Maternity in William Shakespeare’s Coriolanus “Silent, Not as a Foole”: William Shakespeare’s Roman Women and Early Modern Tropes of Feminine Silence “Timidae obsequantur”: Mothers and Wives in Matthew Gwinne’s Nero “Let Me Use All My Pleasures”: The Ovidian Courtship of the Emperor’s Daughter in Ben Jonson’s Poetaster “Few Wise Women’s Honesties”: Dialoguing with Roman Women in Ben Jonson’s Roman Plays Ben Jonson’s and Thomas May’s “Political Ladies”: Forms of Female Political Agency Bawds, Wives, and Foreigners: The Question of Female Agency in the Roman Plays of the Fletcher Canon “The Beauties of the Time”: Roman Women in Philip Massinger’s The Roman Actor “Poison on, Monsters”: Female Poisoners in Early Modern Roman Tragedies Notes on Contributors Index This volume explores the diverse issues connected to female identities in the early modern English plays set in ancient Rome and puts Shakespeares Roman world in dialogue with a number of Roman plays by writers as diverse as Gwinne, Jonson, Fletcher, Massinger, May, and Richards. Thus, the collection seeks to challenge conventional wisdom about the plays under scrutiny by specifically focusing on their female characters, as well as sharpening our awareness of the fact that the Roman world on the early modern stage cannot be simplistically equated with Shakespeares. This collection of essays explores issues connected to female identities in the early modern English plays set in ancient Rome.