Shakespeare And The Embodied Heroine: Staging Female Characters In The Late Plays And Early Adaptations (palgrave Shakespeare Studies)

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Cover 1 Contents 8 List of Illustrations 10 Acknowledgements 12 List of Abbreviations 14 Introduction 15 1 Other Worldly Desires: The Jailer's Daughter and Emiliain Fletcher and Shakespeare's The Two Noble Kinsmen and Davenant's The Rivals 36 Introduction: women's parts in The Two Noble Kinsmen and The Rivals 36 The Jailer's Daughter in The Two Noble Kinsmen and The Rivals 39 Emilia's "female world" and desire 58 2 No Woman Is an Island: Female Roles in Dryden andDavenant's The Tempest, Or The Enchanted Island and Shakespeare's The Tempest 78 Introduction: female roles in The Enchanted Island and The Tempest 78 "Miranda! where's your sister?": Miranda and Dorinda 83 "I must confess, I was inform'd I am a man": Hippolito and Miranda 97 3 Silence and Sorcery, Sexuality and Stone: Absent Partsto Understanding Hermione and Paulina in Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale and Garrick's Florizel and Perdita 112 Introduction: The Winter's Tale adapted and women's roles on Garrick's stage 112 "Tongue-tied, our queen?": The presence and absence of Hermione 120 "Got big tits you're a witch / Fall to bits you're a witch": Paulina's paranormal powers 141 4 Transformation, Transvestism, and Lost Text: Violante'sRape and Cross-Dressing in Lewis Theobald's Double Falsehood and Fletcher and Shakespeare's Cardenio 163 Introduction: a lost text 163 Violante: a lost woman 166 Conclusion 189 Appendix: The Plays in Performance 196 Notes 198 Bibliography 206 Index 215 Shakespeare and the Embodied Heroine is a bold new investigation of Shakespeare's female characters using the late plays and the early adaptations written and staged during the seventeenth and eighteenth century Shakespeare and the Embodied Heroine is a dynamic cross-period investigation of Shakespeare's notable female characters from the late plays. Using the Restoration and eighteenth century adaptations of Shakespeare's plays, this book explores female characters from a theatrical point-of-view that includes a close-reading and imagining of the text with a 'directorial eye', performance history, and practical staging experiments. Leigh reveals evidence to question certain conventional interpretations of Shakespeare's heroines and also documents a paradoxical reduction of sexuality and independent agency for Shakespeare's female roles as they started to be played by actresses rather than boy players. Highlighting the manner in which Shakespeare's female characters have the power to question, subvert, and reposition gender boundaries, and illuminating the complexity and multiplicity of the ways the women in Shakespeare's plays express their agency and desire, this book provides fascinating new readings on the staging and reception of Shakespeare's heroines "Shakespeare and the Embodied Heroine is a dynamic cross-period investigation of Shakespeare's notable female characters from the late plays. Using the Restoration and eighteenth century adaptations of Shakespeare's plays, this book explores female characters from a theatrical point-of-view that includes a close-reading and imagining of the text with a 'directorial eye', performance history, and practical staging experiments. Leigh reveals evidence to question certain conventional interpretations of Shakespeare's heroines and also documents a paradoxical reduction of sexuality and independent agency for Shakespeare's female roles as they started to be played by actresses rather than boy players. Highlighting the manner in which Shakespeare's female characters have the power to question, subvert, and reposition gender boundaries, and illuminating the complexity and multiplicity of the ways the women in Shakespeare's plays express their agency and desire, this book provides fascinating new readings on the staging and reception of Shakespeare's heroines"-- Provided by publisher Front Matter....Pages i-xiii Introduction....Pages 1-21 Other Worldly Desires: The Jailer’s Daughter and Emilia in Fletcher and Shakespeare’s The Two Noble Kinsmen and Davenant’s The Rivals....Pages 22-63 No Woman Is an Island: Female Roles in Dryden and Davenant’s The Tempest, Or The Enchanted Island and Shakespeare’s The Tempest ....Pages 64-97 Silence and Sorcery, Sexuality and Stone: Absent Parts to Understanding Hermione and Paulina in Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale and Garrick’s Florizel and Perdita ....Pages 98-148 Transformation, Transvestism, and Lost Text: Violante’s Rape and Cross-Dressing in Lewis Theobald’s Double Falsehood and Fletcher and Shakespeare’s Cardenio ....Pages 149-174 Conclusion....Pages 175-181 Back Matter....Pages 182-210