Religious Dissimulation and Early Modern Drama: The Limits of Toleration

ISBN-13: 9781009226318 / Angielski

Kilian Schindler

Opis

Kilian Schindler examines how playwrights such as William Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, and Christopher Marlowe represented religious dissimulation on stage and argues that debates about the legitimacy of dissembling one's faith were closely bound up with early modern conceptions of theatricality. Considering both Catholic and Protestant perspectives on religious dissimulation in the absence of full toleration, Schindler demonstrates its ubiquity and urgency in early modern culture. By reconstructing the ideological undercurrents that inform both religious dissimulation and theatricality as a form of dissimulation, this book makes a case for the centrality of dissimulation in the religious politics of early modern drama. Lucid and original, this study is an important contribution to the understanding of early modern religious and literary culture. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.

Recenzje

'Dissembling, hypocrisy, equivocation: these are some of the fears that arose from the Reformation. The local politics surrounding issues of religious conformity produced a general anxiety that outward appearances could not be trusted. People might not be what they seem or say what they believed. Despite the cultural centrality of religious dissimulation, there has not been a sustained study of this topic until now. Kilian Schindler's book deftly takes us into the nuances and complexities of attitudes towards dissimulation. With learned depth, stylistic clarity, and fresh readings of familiar plays, Schindler masterfully explores the intersection of dissimulation and theatrical performance in early modern England.' Kristen Poole, University of Delaware

Spis treści

Introduction; 1. Religious dissimulation and toleration in early modern England; 2. From Oldcastle to Falstaff: the politics of martyrdom and conformity in 1 and 2 Henry IV; 3. Falstaff revisited: Puritan nonconformity and loyal dissent in 1 Sir John Oldcastle; 4. Silence denied: Sir Thomas More and the incrimination of inward dissent; 5. Free speech and neo-stoicist inwardness: the divided delf in Ben Jonson's Sejanus His Fall; 6. Exposing religious dissimulation: the stage Machiavel in Christopher Marlowe's The Jew of Malta; 7. Semi-conformity, idolatrous pollution, and conversion: the permeable self in Ben Jonson's Bartholomew Fair; Conclusion.