Tragedy in Renaissance England: A Comparative Analysis of Shakespearean Influences
Tragedy in Renaissance England was influenced by classical Greek and Roman models as well as late medieval works like those by Seneca and John Lydgate. Shakespeare and his contemporaries drew inspiration from these sources, creating intense explorations of suffering, evil, and the fall of exceptional individuals. Aristotle's definition of tragedy and the elements it encompasses played a significant role in shaping the tragic works of this period, focusing on conflict, change, and the catharsis of emotions. The themes of power, fate, and consequences are central to these tragedies, reflecting the ethical and political concerns of the time.
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Middleton and Tragedy our other Shakespeare Gary Taylor
As practised in Renaissance England and in classical Greece and Rome, tragedy is an intense exploration of suffering and evil focused on the experience of an exceptional individual, distinguished by rank or character or both. Typically, it presents a steep fall from prosperity to misery and untimely death, a great change occasioned or accompanied by conflict between the tragic character and some superior power. It might be said, therefore, that conflict and change the first intense if not violent, the second extreme together constitute the essence of tragedy. Tom McAlindon, What is a Shakespearean tragedy?
Aristotles definition of Tragedy in the 4th Century BCE Poetics: Tragedy, then, is an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude; in language embellished with each kind of artistic ornament, the several kinds being found in separate parts of the play; in the form of action, not of narrative; with incidents arousing pity and fear, wherewith to accomplish its katharsis* of such emotions. . . . Every Tragedy, therefore, must have six parts, which parts determine its quality namely, Plot, Characters, Diction, Thought, Spectacle, Melody (translation by S. H. Butcher). Plot must be of a certainmagnitude and seriousness with universal significance . The plot works toward a reversal of intention ( peripeteia ) producing recognition ( anagnorisis ), a change from ignorance to knowledge producing love or hate between the persons destined for good or bad fortune, which in turns creates the catastrophe leading to the final scene of suffering. Aristotle uses Sophocles Oedipus Tyrannus as his model descriptively for his theorising. *katharsis: a term that has produced much dispute. A state of mind produced by the spectacle, where the massive contradictions of feeling pity , fear , terrible suffering are somehow reconciled through the experience of watching, yielding, finally, in the spectator, grave understanding.
However, the most influential models of tragedy for Shakespeare and his contemporaries were not Greek but Roman and late medieval, specifically Seneca s rhetorical and highly sensational plays (written, we think, for recitation) and the narrative verse tragedies that came in the wake of John Lydgate s fifteenth-century The Fall of Princes, like the 1559 collection known as The Mirror for Magistrates. Seneca (writing when Nero was emperor): terrible and sensational crimes; tyranny and the abuse of political power; rage, lust, sexual jealousy; revenge spurred on by ghosts, Furies, the gods . See Titus Andronicus; The Spanish Tragedy. A theatre of blood . And a theatre of the defiant, assertive self who is prepared to do wrong, consciously, in pursuit of his end: Titus, Hieronimo. Fall of Princes: explores political power but under the influence of Fortune, mutability in worldly affairs, and constant catastrophic change. Imaged in the wheel or ladder : attaining the top of power and prestige, the ambitious hero over-reaches himself and topples headlong into disaster. Classical notions of Fortune are now explained in Christian terms: the original Fall of Adam tropes all future individual falls of man. This tragedy is ethical and political: it demonstrates eternal justice, a link between action and consequence; it shows divine retribution and warns against tyranny and rebellion. It incorporates elements from the medieval morality plays, most significantly, a secularised representation of the Vice character.
Listed as tragedies in the First Folio, 1623: Titus Andronicus Romeo and Juliet Julius Caesar Hamlet Othello Macbeth King Lear Antony and Cleopatra Coriolanus Timon of Athens Cymbeline, King of Britain Terrible recognitions Irreparable loss Destruction of the noble Accidents proceeding from good intentions: I thought all for the best Mis-taking Betrayal by others, by the self Time: running out [Troilus and Cressida]
The role of the domestic: family tragedies investigation of male self-hood? Where does Middleton take tragedy in plays like Women Beware Women and The Changeling? How much of Shakespearean tragedy shows up in Middleton? Tragedy and sex crime : Hamlet, Titus Andronicus, Antony and Cleopatra, Othello Comedy and the sex crime : Oh, mother! Do not marry me to yon fool! / I had rather be set quick in the earth and bowled to death with turnips (Anne Page in The Merry Wives of Windsor); You have her father s love, Demetrius. / Let me have Hermia s. Do you marry him (Lysander in A Midsummer Night s Dream); I must forsooth be forced / To give my hand opposed against my heart / Unto a mad brained rudesby full of spleen / Who wooed in haste and means to wed a leisure (Kate in The Taming of the Shrew); Marry [a husband?] Not till God make men of some other metal than earth. Would it not grieve a woman to be overmastered with a piece of valiant dust? To make an account of her life to a clod of wayward marl? (Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing). Check thy contempt. Obey our will Undone and forfeited to cares forever! Oh, my Parolles, they have married me! (King, Bertram in All s Well that Ends Well). Women (and men) and the misery of enforced marriage: the subject of Elizabethan comedy develops into the subject of Jacobean tragedy with the exploration of the unsuitable suitor?
Women Beware Women and marriage/woman question: trope of the unsuitable suitor Plotline no. 1. Leantio (unsuitable suitor) and his stolen aristocratic Venetian bride Mother: You re to blame / To wrong such a perfection / To draw her from her fortune, which no doubt / At the full time might have proved rich and noble! / You know not what you have done / What ableness have you to do her right then / In maintenance fitting her birth and virtues? -- / Which ev ry woman of necessity looks for / And most to go above it, not confined / By their conditions, virtues, bloods or births / But flowing to affections, wills and humours. Leantio: I pray, do not you teach her to rebel, When she s in a good way to obedience She intends To frame the fashion of an honest love Which knows no wants but mock[s] poverty. Bianca:Kind mother, there is nothing can be wanting To her that does enjoy all her desires. Heaven send a quiet peace with this man s love, And I am as rich as virtue can be poor You have not bid me welcome since I came [Kisses] Leantio: Tis a bitterness / To think upon tomorrow: that I must leave her / Still to the sweet hopes of the week s end pleasure Saturday night.
Leantio: O, fair-eyed Florence, Didst thou but know what a most matchless jewel Thou now art mistress of, a pride would take thee Able to shoot destruction through the bloods Of all thy youthful sons. But tis great policy To keep choice treasures in obscurest place. Should we show thieves our wealth, twould make em bolder. Temptation is a devil will not stick To fasten upon a saint; take heed of that. The jewel is cased up from all men s eyes. Who could imagine now a gem were kept Of that great value under this plain roof? But how in times of absence? What assurance Of this restraint then? Yes, yes, there s one with her. Old mothers know the world. And such as these, When sons lock chests, are good to look to keys. (1.1.161-76) * * * * * * * * Guardiano: I never knew him [the Duke] So infinitely taken with a woman; Nor can I blame his appetite, or tax His raptures of slight folly: she s a creature Able to draw a state from serious business He s spoke twice now (2.2.13-17, 20)
Guardiano: Tis beyond your apprehension How strangely that one look has catched his heart. Twould prove but too much worth in wealth and favour To those should work his peace. Livia: I ll quite give o er and shut up shop in cunning. (2.2.20-27) And if I do tnot, [Enter, above, Guardiano and Bianca taking delight / to see your rooms and pictures ] [Livia and Mother sit to play at chess] * * * * * * * * Guardiano: There s a better piece / Yet than all these Turn but your eye now [Enter Duke, behind Bianca; Bianca turns and sees the Duke] Bianca: O sir! Duke: He s gone, beauty Bianca: O, treachery to honor! Duke: Prithee, tremble not Why art so fearful? I m friend to brightness Pish, strive not The lifting of thy voice is but like one / That does exalt his enemy / Take warning I should be sorry the least force should lay / An unkind touch upon thee I give better in exchange: wealth, honour. / She that is fortunate in a duke s favour / Lights on a tree that bears all women s wishes Take hold of glory./Do not cast away your life / Upon necessities (2.2.112-375) * * * * * * * * Guardiano: I can but smile as often as I think on t. How prettily the poor fool was beguiled, / How unexpectedly! It s a witty age. / Never were finer snares for women s honesties / Than are devised in these days (2.2.393 397).
Bianca: Now bless me from a blasting! I saw that now Fearful for any woman s eye to look on Yet since my honour s leprous, why should I Preserve that fair that caused the leprosy? Come, poison all at once I m made bold now Sin and I m acquainted, No couple greater What, at it still, Mother?... The kindness of some people, how t exceeds! Faith, I have seen that I little thought to see I th morningwhen I rose [Aside to Livia] You re a damned bawd. [Eixt] Livia: Is tso? damned bawd ? Are you so bitter? Tis but want of use Tis but a qualm of honour; twill away; A little bitter for the time, but lasts not. Sin tastes at the first draught like wormwood-water, But, drunk again, tis nectar ever after. (2.2. 419 476)
Bianca: How strangely womans fortune comes about! This was the farthest way to come to me, All would have judged that knew me born in Venice, And there with many jealous eyes brought up That never thought they had me sure enough But when they were upon me. Yet my hap To meet it here, so far off from my birthplace, My friends, or kindred! Tis not good, in sadness, To keep a maid so strict in her young days. Restraint breeds wand ring thoughts, as many fasting days A great desire to see flesh stirring again. I ll ne er use any girl of mine so strictly They will come to t And fetch their falls a thousand mile about. Where one would little think on t How now, what silkworm s this, in the name of pride? (Husband/Wife trade observations: lodging, suit, cloak, slippers, shoemaker, spurs. And insults: You re a whore An impudent, spiteful strumpet but I am not love- starved ; Vex, gnaw . And remedy from the Duke: Do not vex your mind. Prithee, to bed, go. /All shall be well and quiet .
Plotline no. 2. Proposed marriage between Isabella (beautiful, accomplished, wealthy) and the Ward (an imbecile, rich, tutored by Sordido , addicted to vaguely disguised sex games/toys, libido personified as in fool s bauble ). Arranged by her father (Fabritio) and Guardiano (who holds his wardship). Fabritio (to Isabella): On with your mask, for tis your part to see now, And not be seen See what you mean to lie; nay, and I charge you, Like what you see. Do you hear me? There s no dallying; The gentleman s almost twenty, and tis time He was getting lawful heirs, and you a-breeding on em! (1.2.74-79) * * * * * * * * Livia: I must take my niece s part, and call t injustice To force her love to one she never saw. Maids should both see and like; all little enough. If they love truly after that, tis well. Counting the time she takes one man, till death, That s a hard task, I tell you; but one may Enquire at three years end amongst young wives, And mark how the game goes. (1.2.29-37)
Fabritio (to Isabella): How do you like him, girl? This is your husband. Like him or like him not, wench, you shall have him, And you shall love him. Livia: O, soft there, brother! Though you be a justice, Your warrant cannot be served out of your liberty. You may compel, out of the power of father, Things merely harsh to a maid s flesh and blood; But when you come to love, there the soil alters; You re in another country, where your laws Are no more setby than the cacklings Of geese in Rome s great Capitol Isabella: [aside] Marry a fool! Can there be greater misery to a woman That means to keep her days true to her husband And know no other man? So virtue wills it. Why, how can I obey and honour him ? O, the heart-breakings Of miserable maids where love s enforced! The best condition is but bad enough: When women have their choices, commonly They do but buy their thraldoms, and bring great portions To men to keep em in subjection Men buy their slaves, but women buy their masters (1.2.130 178) [Hippolito, her uncle, as incestuous unsuitable suitor; helpful Livia and historic revelation cancelling filial obedience and Never came joys so unexpectedly! ]
The Final Scene The Wedding Masque Duke: What s this, Fabritio? Fabritio: Of what s presented . Marry, lord, the model Duke: But soft: here s no such persons in the argument As these three, Hymen, Hebe, Ganymede. The actors that this model here discovers Are only four, Juno, a nymph and two lovers. Bianca: This is some antimasque, belike, my lord Duke: What s the conceit of that?... This swerves a little from the argument Why, sure the plot s drawn false: here s no such thing I have lost myself in this quite. Hippolito: My great lords, we are all confounded . Duke: Upon the first night of our nuptial honours Destruction play her triumph, and great mischiefs Masque in expected pleasures! Tis prodigious I like em not. Removed these ruined bodies from our eyes I am lost in sight and strength She falls down upon t.
Bianca: Not yet? No change? When falls he to the earth?... Nor yet? O, the curse of wretchedness! My deadly hand is fall n upon my lord! Destruction take me to thee! Accursed error!...Give me thy last breath So my desires are satisfied Leantio, now I feel the breach of marriage At my heart breaking. O, the deadly snares That women set for women, without pity Either to soul or honour! Learn by me To know your foes. In this belief I die: Like our own sex we have no enemy, no enemy. Women Beware Women? Really? Women Beware Women is an impressively stark and disturbing play. As in King Lear, the plots reinforce each other; each of the contrasted marriage-matches seals off the possibility of there being a happier alternative in its opposite. The language has a conversational surface that is firmly locked into a network of unremitting ironies [D]ramatic irony transports the everyday stuff of social comedy into a tragic world As she dies amongst strangers, Bianca, forgetting the Duke and Guardiano, blames women for it all perhaps, in this at least, a woman of whom women should beware (John Jowett, in Taylor and Lavagnino, Thomas Middleton: The Collected Works). SLAPSTICK TRAGEDY?
The edifying story of Frances Howard, daughter Earl of Suffolk, b. 1590; married (aged 14) to 13-year-old Earl of Essex (son of Robert, executed by Elizabeth in 1601). Separated to avoid premature sexual intercourse and pregnancy. Essex on European tour until 1607/8. Lady Essex at court, where she falls in love with Robbie Carr, favourite to King James, who makes him Earl of Somerset. She sues for an annulment of her marriage to Essex alleging impotence and failure to consummate marriage (which he contested, alleging impotence by witchcraft only with her. See Middleton s play, The Witch.) James grants the divorce in 1613; two months later she marries Carr in her hair and at stupendous cost to the crown. Meanwhile, Carr s personal private secretary, who has objected strenuously to the marriage, is imprisoned in the Tower and there dies under mysterious circumstances. It s later discovered that he has been poisoned by Frances in collusion with a servant, Anne Turner (who s executed: see her confession . The Somersets are sent to the Tower, but spared execution and later pardoned by the King. Women beware women? And men?
