Paper Session 7

I hear the bell ringing again out in the lobby and Dr. Ralph Cohen has stepped up to the podium, so it looks like paper session 7 is about to begin! Sarah Enloe and Dr. Cohen are discussing all the errors on some Blackfriars conference t-shirts. Our moderator is Dr. Mary Hill Cole from Mary Baldwin College.

The first presenter is Ryan McCarthy, who is a former student in the Mlitt/MFA student.

Ryan McCarthy, “Lying-in in Chaste Maid”
This paper is a response to a footnote in Chaste Maid in Cheapside referencing common scenes of lying-ins. He is going to tell us how this play differs from other (more hateful) representations of the post-birth female ritual. McCarthy discusses the tradition of lying-in, and the rituals that it involves: primarily, keeping the mother and new baby in a dark, closed, warm chamber. He points out how different an exposed, sunlit, public theatre is from such a chamber; also, how similar a candle-lit, small, private theatre mimics it.

One of the more common themes concerning the lying-in is the large gathering of women without male supervision—the ability of women to control a space is a cause for concern in plays. Often the women discuss and teach how to control husbands. Female control of space means female control of men.

In Middleton’s play, men are a continuous presence in the lying-in stage—when onstage, the men speak more than the women. Allwit, in fact, spends most of his time delivering asides. The presence of men displaces it from other satires of lying-in, as it mocks men as well as women.

Katherine Pilhuj “Merciful Construction”: Architecture, the Body, and Gendered
Political Discourse in William Shakespeare’s The Famous History
of the Life of King Henry the Eight[h]”
Pilhuj is talking about Shakespeare’s Henry VIII, which is really kind of awesome, since we mostly like to forget it exists. She argues that Shakespeare’s Henry lives within small rooms, not on battlefields or banquets. The men that are physically close to Henry are those who have the most political power, and when out of the physical presence of the king, characters fall into disgrace and are often imprisoned and/or executed. Proximity and control of access are also places for danger and treason.

Privacy for a king was the exclusion of those not needing to be present. Not being present is equal to not being considered necessary. Wolsey is depicted before his fall as being always close to Henry, supporting him with his shoulder, etc. Shakespeare uses more than just visual representation of this—other characters also use metaphoric descriptions of physical closeness on the part of Wolsey and Cranmer.

The thunder sheet! Perhaps we’ll see the bear today! Could I be so lucky? Oh please, oh please!

Queen Katherine is depicted as being out among her subjects—a very public figure, unlike the closeted Henry.

BEAR!!!!!! With a tie! Life is good.

Herb Weil, “Peace! I will stop your mouth!”
First, you should know that I typed that title as “Peach! I will stop your mouth!” which I think is probably a very different presentation, that I would very much like to see.

Victoria Reinsel, Chris Seiler, and James Keegan perform the final scene in Much Ado About Nothing. In the quarto and folio text, Leonato speaks the line “Peace! I will stop your mouth!” and not Benedick at all, to whom the line is generally assigned in performances and in new editions. How would such a moment be performed? Is it a funny moment? Frightening?

In 2006 the Arden “three” re-assigned the line to Leonato. Weil and his actors demonstrate different interpretations of this line, delivered by different characters with different tactics. The decision of who delivers this one line, and how, can decide how the audience perceives the lovers’ marriage, and the end of this story.

Bob Hornback “Falstaff and Will Kemp’s ‘Self-Resembled Show’”

Hornback is referencing a contemporary review—or at least response—to Shakespeare’s 1&2 H4. His argument is that Kemp played Falstaff—in fact, that there are close similarities between the character and performer. He gives a short history of Kemp’s life which I will not repeat here, as I’m sure most facts are easily available to the curious. The questionable relationship between Falstaff and Protestantism was mirrored in Kemp’s life, and audiences might well have recognized it.

Keegan, dressed as Falstaff, delivers the epilogue from 2 Henry 4, and Hornback invites us to listen for hints of the actor within the character’s lines. The epilogue is wittiest when self-referential.

Thunder sheet! Surely I won’t get to see the bear twice in one session?

Better: I got to see Falstaff AS the bear! Additionally, Falstaff left the head on the podium, distressing our moderator. Best. Day. Ever.

Alan Dessen “Exit Sick? Caius Ligarius and Caesarism"
Dessen speaks quite softly, so I’m not certain what he’s saying. Tricky.

I think he’s discussing visual signifiers of sick but mobile figures, such as nightgowns, crutches, and kerchiefs. Shakespeare’s imagery in the exchange between Ligarius and Brutus includes the physical motion of throwing away the kerchief (and/or crutch). However, is the man actually cured or is he simply blindly accepting authority, a representation of Rome’s sickness (Caesarism)? Are we to imagine this sick man invigorated, marching off to war? Or, does this man limp offstage needing assistance from Brutus? What happens to the kerchief and crutch?

Ligarius is acting as a representation of the illness of Rome, without being a literal representation, such as Health or Wealth.

Jacqueline Vanhoutte “Age in Love: Lyly’s Endymion and Superannuated Male Sexuality at the Elizabethan Court”
She begins by discussing the discomfort of Elizabethans with age and the aging process. Men were expected to observe social restrictions on sexuality in age—the older the man, the less acceptable were passions. The problem is that Elizabeth was also aging: so as she aged, so did her close attendants. Leicester was perceived as an “unnaturally oversexed” older man, who relied on Italian potions to…ahem…perform. His name became the source of a pun, from “Leicester” to “Lecher.”

…I think she’s going to be chased offstage by a bear.

I do believe the words “feminine suppository” just came out of Vanhoutte’s mouth, in reference to Leicester. Wow, people really did not like this man. Sir Topas in Endymion is the representation of the older lecherous man from anti-Leicester literature, who believes that that which suits young men suits him as well.

BEAR! In a skirt!

Be back soon with the staging session!