Widows and Suitors in Early Modern English Comedy

ISBN-13: 9780521832717 / Angielski / Twarda / 2004 / 254 str.

Jennifer Panek

Opis

The courtship and remarriage of a rich widow was a popular motif in early modern comic theatre. Jennifer Panek brings together a variety of texts, from ballads and jest-books to sermons and court records, to examine this staple of comic theatre in its cultural context. She persuasively challenges the stereotype of the lusty widow as a tactic to dissuade women from second marriages, arguing instead that it was deployed to enable her suitors to regain their masculinity, under threat from the dominant, wealthier widow.

Recenzje

'Panek convincingly demonstrates that widows in sixteenth-century England, unlike their Continental counterparts, were encouraged to remarry for a variety of good social, economic and familial reasons.' The Times Literary Supplement

Spis treści

Acknowledgements; A note on texts; Introduction; 1. The widow's choice: female remarriage in early modern England; 2. The widow's threat: domestic government and male anxiety; 3. The suitor's fantasy: courtship and compensation; 4. The husband's fear: the lusty widow as wife; 5. A playwright's response: four Middletonian remarriage plots; Notes; Works cited; Index.