Passionate Playgoing in Early Modern England

Passionate Playgoing in Early Modern England examines the emotional effect of stage performance on the minds of the early modern theatre audience.

Allison P. Hobgood (Author)

9781107041288, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 23 January 2014

248 pages
23.5 x 15.6 x 2 cm, 0.5 kg

Allison P. Hobgood tells a new story about the emotional experiences of theatregoers in Renaissance England. Through detailed case studies of canonical plays by Shakespeare, Jonson, Kyd and Heywood, the reader will discover what it felt like to be part of performances in English theatre and appreciate the key role theatregoers played in the life of early modern drama. How were spectators moved - by delight, fear or shame, for example - and how did their own reactions in turn make an impact on stage performances? Addressing these questions and many more, this book discerns not just how theatregoers were altered by drama's affective encounters, but how they were undeniable influences upon those encounters. Overall, Hobgood reveals a unique collaboration between the English world and stage, one that significantly reshapes the ways we watch, read and understand early modern drama.

Introduction: pondering playgoers
1. Fear-sickness in Macbeth
2. Emotional afterlives in The Spanish Tragedy
3. Hazarding homeopathy in A Woman Killed with Kindness
4. Notorious abuses in Twelfth Night
5. Jonson and the pleasure problem
Coda: becoming selves
Bibliography.

Subject Areas: Shakespeare studies & criticism [DSGS], Literary studies: classical, early & medieval [DSBB]