Staging Reform, Reforming the Stage: Protestantism and Popular Theater in Early Modern England 9781501734083

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Staging Reform, Reforming the Stage

Staging Reform, Reforming the Stage PROTESTANTISM AND POPULAR THEATER IN EARLY MODERN ENGLAND

Huston Diehl

Cornell University Press ITHACA AND LONDON

Cornell University Press gratefully acknowle subvention from the University of Iowa,

,

which aided in the publication of this book|

Copyright © 1997 by Cornell University All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, thisDookVor parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850.

First published 1997 by Cornell University Press. Printed in the United States of America This book is printed on Lyons Falls Turin Book, a paper that is totally chlorine-free and acid-free.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Diehl, Huston, b. 1948 Staging reform, reforming the stage : Protestantism and popular theater in Early Modern England / Huston Diehl, p.

cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8014-3303-7 (alk. paper) 1. English drama—Early modern and Elizabethan, 1500-1600—History and criticism.

2. Protestantism and literature—History—16th century.

3. Protestantism and literature—History—17th century. 17th century—History and criticism. criticism.

5. English drama (Tragedy)—History and

6. Theater—Religious aspects—Christianity.

History—16th century.

10. Aesthetics, British.

I. Title.

1997

822'.051209382—DC20

Cloth printing

7. Theater—England—

8. Theater—England—History—17th century.

9. Renaissance—England. PR658.P724D54

4. English drama—

1098765432 1

94-41169

For Jerry

Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2018 with funding from The Arcadia Fund

https ://arch i ve. o rg/detai I s/stag i ng refo rm ref OOd i eh

Contents

List of Illustrations Acknowledgments

ix xi xv

A Note on Editorial Practice Introduction

1

1

The Drama of Iconoclasm

2

The Rhetoric of Reform

3

Censoring the Imaginary: The Wittenberg Tragedies

4

Rehearsing the Eucharistic Controversies: The Revenge Tragedies

9 40


!33> 139~4°» i5ln> i56> i^n

238

Index

Virgin, 148, 170-71, 180; image of, 170;

virgin and, 148, 170-72; Protestant

problem of distinguishing between

association of Roman Church with, 34,

whore and, 148, 170-72, 180. See also

175; theater as, 176-77; Vittoria

Mary, the Virgin

Corombona as, 178-79

Visions, 140-41, 204, 208-11. See also

Whore of Babylon, 34

Ghost; Image; Sight; Spectacle;

Wilks, John S., i82n, 202n

Spectatorship

Wilson, Thomas, 1650 Winter’s Tale, A (Shakespeare), 87

Waddington, Raymond B., 82n

Witchcraft, 150, 183

Wame, John, 47

Witness, 187, 191-96, 201, 203, 206-7,

Watt, Tessa, 22-23 Wayne, Valerie, 1580 Webster, John, 4, 6, 64; and Calvinism, 182-83; and love tragedy, 166; and

211-12. See also Conscience; Martrydom Wittenberg, 62, 67, 72, 74-75, 77n, 82 Women Beware Women (Middleton), 4, 117-

Protestant aesthetics, 213-15. See also

18, 166-72; and iconophobia, 166-69;

Duchess of Malfi, The; White Devil, The

and idolatrous love, 166-68; and the

Weiner, Andrew D., 83n

play-within-a-play, 117-18

Wheeler, Richard, i57n

Wood, William, 67-680, 6gn

Whitaker, Virgil K., 83n

Woodbridge, Linda, i26n

White, Helen C., 22, 23n

Woodman, David, i26n

White, Paul, 5-6

Woolton, John, 202

White Devil, The (Webster), 4, 166, i7on, 172, 178-80; and iconophobia, 179;

Word, 98, 103-5, m> H4- See also Bible; Sacrament

and idolatrous love, 166, 179; and

Wriothesley, Charles, 19

theatricality, 178-79 Whore, 31-34, 156-57, 176-81; images as, 31, 33> 156, 160-62, 170-71; problem of distinguishing between

Yates, Frances, 6gn, 740, 750, 76, 870 Zwingli, Ulrich, 16, 84, 158, 163