Monuments and Literary Posterity in Early Modern Drama
Cambridge University Press
Edition: Illustrated, 11/19/2015
EAN 9781107123472, ISBN10: 110712347X
Hardcover, 231 pages, 23.7 x 15.2 x 1.7 cm
Language: English
In spite of the ephemeral nature of performed drama, playwrights such as Marlowe, Jonson, Webster, Fletcher, and Shakespeare were deeply interested in the endurance of their theatrical work and in their own literary immortality. This book re-evaluates the relationship between these early modern dramatists and literary posterity by considering their work within the context of post-Reformation memorialization. Providing fresh analyses of plays by major dramatists, Brian Chalk considers how they depicted monuments and other funeral properties on stage in order to exploit and criticize the rich ambiguities of commemorative rituals. The book also discusses the print history of the plays featured. The subject will attract scholars and upper-level students of Renaissance drama, memory studies, early modern theatre, and print history.
Introduction
'raptures of futurity'
1. 'Let all things end'
Marlowe's immortality
2. Jonson's textual monument
3. Webster's 'worthyest monument'
the problem of posterity in The Duchess of Malfi
4. 'Mocking life'
preemptive commemoration in The Winter's Tale
5. Fletcher's future
dynasty and collaborative posterity in Henry VIII
Coda
what they hath left us
Select bibliography
Index.