6 Letters to a young prince
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Brian Walsh
Abstract
This chapter focuses on When You See Me You Know Me written by Samuel Rowley and performed by Prince Henry's Men. This play delves deeper than the others into the historiographical dynamics and contemporary resonances of early Tudor confessional conflicts. It deserves closer examination than it has hitherto received for the provocative way that it historicizes the origins of English Protestantism, and the canniness with which it makes this story present to Jacobean audiences. Post-Reformation England struggled with what it meant to live in a world fragmented by religious change. The chapter considers a central scene in When You See Me You Know Me's presentation of the history of the Reformation in England. In this scene the young Prince Edward reads dueling letters from his sisters, Mary and Elizabeth.
Abstract
This chapter focuses on When You See Me You Know Me written by Samuel Rowley and performed by Prince Henry's Men. This play delves deeper than the others into the historiographical dynamics and contemporary resonances of early Tudor confessional conflicts. It deserves closer examination than it has hitherto received for the provocative way that it historicizes the origins of English Protestantism, and the canniness with which it makes this story present to Jacobean audiences. Post-Reformation England struggled with what it meant to live in a world fragmented by religious change. The chapter considers a central scene in When You See Me You Know Me's presentation of the history of the Reformation in England. In this scene the young Prince Edward reads dueling letters from his sisters, Mary and Elizabeth.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Front matter i
- Dedication v
- Contents vii
- Notes on contributors ix
- Acknowledgments xii
- Introduction 1
-
Part I Religious ritual and literary form
- 1 Shylock celebrates Easter 21
- 2 Protestant faith and Catholic charity 39
- 3 Singing in the counter 56
- 4 Romancing the Eucharist 72
- 5 Edmund Spenser’s The Ruines of Time as a Protestant poetics of mourning and commemoration 90
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Part II Negotiating confessional conflict
- 6 Letters to a young prince 113
- 7 Tragic mediation in The White Devil 126
- 8 ‘A deed without a name’ 142
- 9 Henry V and the interrogative conscience as a space for the performative negotiation of confessional conflict 160
- 10 Formal experimentation and the question of Donne’s ecumenicalism 182
- 11 Foucault, confession, and Donne 196
- Afterword 216
- Index 239
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Front matter i
- Dedication v
- Contents vii
- Notes on contributors ix
- Acknowledgments xii
- Introduction 1
-
Part I Religious ritual and literary form
- 1 Shylock celebrates Easter 21
- 2 Protestant faith and Catholic charity 39
- 3 Singing in the counter 56
- 4 Romancing the Eucharist 72
- 5 Edmund Spenser’s The Ruines of Time as a Protestant poetics of mourning and commemoration 90
-
Part II Negotiating confessional conflict
- 6 Letters to a young prince 113
- 7 Tragic mediation in The White Devil 126
- 8 ‘A deed without a name’ 142
- 9 Henry V and the interrogative conscience as a space for the performative negotiation of confessional conflict 160
- 10 Formal experimentation and the question of Donne’s ecumenicalism 182
- 11 Foucault, confession, and Donne 196
- Afterword 216
- Index 239
