SHAKESPEARE'S "TWELFTH NIGHT" AND THE REVELS.
Item
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Title
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SHAKESPEARE'S "TWELFTH NIGHT" AND THE REVELS.
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Identifier
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AAI8222951
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identifier
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8222951
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Creator
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KAMINSKY, AKIVA.
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Contributor
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W.R. Elton
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Date
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1982
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Literature, English
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Abstract
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Chapter 1. Introduction. This dissertation supplies a study of the literary and social background of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night (c. 1601) in he context of the English revels, c. 1600 in the hope of developing an authentic Elizabethan perspective on the play.;Chapter 2. Aristocratic Christmas Revels. A general examination of revelry in Twelfth Night suggests the practices of English aristocrats at Christmas, c. 1600.;Chapter 3. Royal Revels: Twelfth Night, 1601. Numerous links, topical, literary and thematic, seem to connect the January, 1601 court visit of Don Virginio Orsini, Duke of Bracciano, to Twelfth Night that London audiences would probably recognize the following Christmas.;Chapter 4. Inns of Court and Middle Temple Revels. The English law-school revels in general and the Middle Temple revels in particular seem to supply the proximate social background of Twelfth Night.;Chapter 5. The Viola Plot: Classical and Learned Antecedents. The "Viola plot" originated in Italian learned comedy. Like other learned versions of the "Viola plot," Twelfth Night possesses a contaminated main plot.;Chapter 6. The Viola Plot: Romance Antecedents. Twelfth Night adjusts "classical" and "romance" strains in accord with a group of plays associated with Inns of Court revels while adhering to the dramaturgy of the popular stages.;Chapter 7. Date and Text. The 1601 date of composition seems reasonably assured. The Folio text may be a carefully edited conflation of the presumed Middle Temple presentation copy and the regular prompt book.;Chapter 8. Romantic Comedies and Occasional Plays. The term "romantic comedy" seems to have little relevance to the attempt to construct an authentic Elizabethan perspective. Further, the widely-held formulation in opposition to "occasional plays" seems moot: Elizabethan playwrights apparently wrote with private audiences in mind while still intending the play to be performed outdoors. This seems to be the case concerning Twelfth Night at the Middle Temple.;Chapter 9. Summary and Conclusion. Thus, a reformulation of "romantic comedy" and "occasional plays" seems indicated. With respect to Twelfth Night the two terms might be reduced to one: in sum, the Elizabethans would probably have called Twelfth Night a Revels.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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English
