Shakespeare and the Soliloquy in Early Modern English Drama

This is the first book to provide students and scholars with a truly comprehensive guide to the early modern soliloquy.

A. D. Cousins (Edited by), Daniel Derrin (Edited by)

9781316623893, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 23 June 2022

288 pages
22.8 x 15 x 1.6 cm, 0.43 kg

'… scholars and teachers of early modern drama will find Shakespeare and the Soliloquy in Early Modern English Drama a valuable resource that furthers our understanding of the uses of this important rhetorical device.' Emily Shortslef, Renaissance Quarterly

Encompassing nearly a century of drama, this is the first book to provide students and scholars with a truly comprehensive guide to the early modern soliloquy. Considering the antecedents of the form in Roman, late fifteenth and mid-sixteenth century drama, it analyses its diversity, its theatrical functions and its socio-political significances. Containing detailed case-studies of the plays of Marlowe, Shakespeare, Jonson, Ford, Middleton and Davenant, this collection will equip students in their own close-readings of texts, providing them with an indepth knowledge of the verbal and dramaturgical aspects of the form. Informed by rich theatrical and historical understanding, the essays reveal the larger connections between Shakespeare's use of the soliloquy and its deployment by his fellow dramatists.

Introduction A.D. Cousins and Daniel Derrin
1. Roman soliloquy Joseph A. Smith
2. Tudor transformations Raphael Falco
3. Doubtful battle: Marlowe's soliloquies Liam Semler
4. Shakespeare and the female voice in soliloquy Catherine Bates
5. Contemplative idiots in soliloquy: rhetorical parody, laughable deformity and the audience Daniel Derrin
6. Giving voice to history in Shakespeare David Bevington
7. Hamlet and of truth: humanism and the disingenuous soliloquy A. D. Cousins
8. Choosing between shame and guilt: Macbeth, Othello, Hamlet and King Lear Patrick Gray
9. 'Too hot, too hot': the rhetorical poetics of soliloquies in Shakespeare's late plays Kate Aughterson
10. Ben Jonson's Roman soliloquies James Loxley
11. Ben Jonson's comic selves Brian Woolland
12. 'In such a whisp'ring and withdrawing hour': speaking solus in Middleton's The Revenger's Tragedy and the Lady's Tragedy Andrew Hiscock
13. John Ford's soliloquies: solitude interrupted Huw Griffiths
14. Davenant's Macbeth: soliloquy, counter-revolution, and restoration Dani Napton and A. D. Cousins
15. What were soliloquies in plays by Shakespeare and other late Renaissance dramatists? An empirical approach James Hirsh
Select Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Shakespeare studies & criticism [DSGS], Literary studies: plays & playwrights [DSG], Literary studies: c 1500 to c 1800 [DSBD]