Personation: The players' art on Shakespeare's stage, 1599-1611.
Item
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Title
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Personation: The players' art on Shakespeare's stage, 1599-1611.
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Identifier
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AAI9020792
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identifier
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9020792
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Creator
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Narey, Wayne Douglas.
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Contributor
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W. Speed Hill
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Date
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1990
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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 | Theater
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Abstract
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This work argues that the Chamberlain's-King's Men used a mixture of playing styles from 1599 to 1611, which allowed for more "natural" action to complement an older, more formal style of play. While the predominant style of acting on the London stage of the 1590s was a conventional play craft that used actors as correspondents for verbal images, in Hamlet it was supplemented by an occasional "plausible" style, which lent a different, more "realistic" perspective to the drama.;The influences around 1599 upon the playing forms of the Chamberlain's Men were many: the construction of the Globe theatre and its unique partnership, the ensemble talents--especially those of Richard Burbage--of a successful playing company, and the relationship of Shakespeare to that company as actor-dramatist. Dramatic forms and playing styles, therefore, have a symbiotic relationship: a shifting dramatic perspective gives evidence of a modulation in presentational form in which viewers are given alternative ways of seeing stage action. Beginning with Hamlet, and especially found in the great tragedies, Shakespeare's dramatic picture is one of shifting focuses and ambiguous characterizations.;The source for this work is drawn largely from Shakespeare's plays. Documentation is also taken from contemporary sources of pro-theatrical and anti-theatrical material, from apologists, Puritan opponents, and disinterested observers from the period.;The study is divided into seven sections: the importance of the 1599 date and general introduction; an account of medieval playing and the development of Elizabethan playing styles; the "traditional" presentational forms of the 1590s from which the Chamberlain's Men diverged; the changes found on the London stages in the late 1590s and early 1600s--particularly those differences between the Chamberlain's Men and the Admiral's Men; the "New Drama" of Hamlet; Shakespeare's perspectival drama in the tragedies, especially, and some Blackfriars plays; and a conclusion. Although each of these areas could be a full-length study in its own, the judgment offered as to the presentational forms used on Shakespeare's stage is for the most part focused on a specific company within a specific time, so that that judgment can be tested against a limited corpus of dramatic scripts.
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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
