The Queen's Dumbshows: John Lydgate and the Making of Early Theater

Claire Sponsler

Published by University of Pennsylvania Press 2014

The Queen's Dumbshows

John Lydgate and the Making of Early Theater

Claire Sponsler

In the series The Middle Ages Series

https://doi.org/10.9783/9780812209471

Overview
Contents

About this book

The Queen's Dumbshows explores the importance of John Lydgate's mummings and entertainments for literary and theatrical history, rethinking what constitutes "drama" in late medieval England and what role it played in public life.

Author / Editor information

Claire Sponsler is Professor of English at the University of Iowa and author of a number of books, including Ritual Imports: Performing Medieval Drama in America, winner of the Barnard Hewitt Award of the American Society for Theatre Research.

Reviews

"Claire Sponsler's lucid, precise, and highly enjoyable book is the latest entry in a growing list of monographs intent on reconsidering the parameters of "early theatre" in medieval Europe. . . . Her exemplary interdisciplinary work moving between the archive and the repertoire in fifteenth-century England provides both an enviable model to others and a thoroughly engaging trek into uncharted territory. Even for theatre scholars studying different eras, Sponsler's scholarship deserves attention, if for no other reason than that it will change what "early English theatre" means to you."—Theatre Journal

"This absorbing and well-plotted study affords a rare glimpse into the conceptualization, performance, and impact of drama at a crucial time in the creation of an English vernacular literature."—Carol Symes, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

"Claire Sponsler's book offers a fascinating look at what so often either slips between the cracks of modern genre classifications or is left to lie at the edges of the strictly "literary." . . . Her work calls for nothing less than a re-evaluation of the terms, categories and assumptions with which we approach late medieval literature."—TLS

"An impressively researched, perceptive study of a neglected topic by a leading scholar of medieval English drama."—Theresa Coletti, University of Maryland

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
List of Abbreviations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	vii
Introduction: Theater History as a Challenge to Literary History Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Chapter 1. Shirley’s Hand Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	17
Chapter 2. Vernacular Cosmopolitanism: London Mummings and Disguisings Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	35
Chapter 3. Performing Pictures Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	67
Chapter 4. Performance and Gloss: Th e Pro cession of Corpus Christi Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	97
Chapter 5. Inscription and Ceremony: The 1432 Royal Entry Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	115
Chapter 6. Edible Th eater Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	147
Chapter 7. The Queen’s Dumbshows Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	167
Chapter 8. On Drama’s Trail Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	191
Afterword Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	211
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	217
Works Cited Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	265
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	291
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	307

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Audience: College/higher education;
Pages
- Main content: 320
Illustrations
- Other: 7 illus.
Keywords: Literature; Medieval and Renaissance Studies; Literature; Cultural Studies

eBook

Published: March 10, 2014
ISBN: 9780812209471