9 Henry V and the interrogative conscience as a space for the performative negotiation of confessional conflict
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Mary A. Blackstone
Abstract
The multiplicity of interrogative perspectives at 'play' in the Elizabethan public theatres, and the Globe in particular, began with the make-up of the audiences. Their widely recognized diversity across class, occupation, education, and to some degree gender included 'penny stinkards' in the pit and wealthy merchants, Inns of Court scholars, members of the gentry and nobility. It also included religious diversity. Moving beyond assertions relating to personal spiritual questioning on Shakespeare's part, this exploration of the play focuses on the way in which he consciously uses the innately interrogative qualities of confessional conflict for dramaturgical effect. In Henry V, in particular, the Chorus imperatively demands an active rather than passive response from its audience as the first order of business. Shakespeare's decision to maintain and enhance the motif of stealing found in the source play therefore directly feeds the interrogative character of the play.
Abstract
The multiplicity of interrogative perspectives at 'play' in the Elizabethan public theatres, and the Globe in particular, began with the make-up of the audiences. Their widely recognized diversity across class, occupation, education, and to some degree gender included 'penny stinkards' in the pit and wealthy merchants, Inns of Court scholars, members of the gentry and nobility. It also included religious diversity. Moving beyond assertions relating to personal spiritual questioning on Shakespeare's part, this exploration of the play focuses on the way in which he consciously uses the innately interrogative qualities of confessional conflict for dramaturgical effect. In Henry V, in particular, the Chorus imperatively demands an active rather than passive response from its audience as the first order of business. Shakespeare's decision to maintain and enhance the motif of stealing found in the source play therefore directly feeds the interrogative character of the play.
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
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
