Referencing early modern English play texts alongside contemporary records; accounts and statutes; this study offers an overdue assessment of the relationship between the dramatic efforts of the universities and early modern male identity. Taking into account the near single-sex constitution of early modern universities; the book argues that performances of university plays; and student responses to them; were key ways of exploring and shaping early modern masculinity. Christopher Marlow shows how the plays dealt with their academic and social contexts; and analyses their responses to competing versions of masculinity. He also considers the implications of university authority and royal patronage for scholarly performances of masculinity; the effect of the literary traditions of classical friendship and platonic love on academic representations of male behaviour; and the relationship between university drama and masculine initiation rituals. Including discussion of the Parnassus trilogy; Club Law and works by Thomas Randolph; William Cartwright; John Milton and others; this study shines new light on long neglected aspects of the golden age of English drama.
2016-09-26 2016-09-26File Name: B01FHRPQ6I
Review
