Language and Politics in the Sixteenth-Century History Play examines a key preoccupation of historical drama in the period 1538-1600: the threat presented by uncivil language. 'Unlicensed' speech informs the presentation of political debate in Tudor history plays and it is also the subject of their most daring political speculations. By analyzing plays by John Bale, Thomas Norton, Thomas Sackville, and Robert Greene, as well as Shakespeare, this study also argues for a more inclusive approach to the genre.

Autorentext

DERMOT CAVANAGH is Lecturer in English at the University of Northumbria.

Zusammenfassung
Language and Politics in the Sixteenth-Century History Play presents a new reading of the form and politics of historical drama from John Bale to William Shakespeare. It argues that the genre was theatrically diverse and ideologically various and that it contributed to a debate concerning the implications of disorderly language. The book examines how history plays dramatise and use unruly speech for the purpose of political enquiry: this includes their representation of rumour, sedition, treacherous words, and corrupt counsel. It emphasizes the radical possibilities of the form and content of historical drama by focusing on a range of plays: Bale's King Johan, Norton and Sackville's Gorboduc, Robert Greene's James IV and Shakespeare's King John, Richard II, and Henry V. Shakespeare is shown both to draw upon and to extend the critical potential of the history play so popular among his contemporaries.

Inhalt

Acknowledgements Abbreviations and Conventions Introduction The Paradox of Sedition in John Bale's King Johan The Language of Counsel in Gorboduc Language, Temperance, and the Nation in Robert Greene's The Scottish History of James IV Misreading History: Rumour in King John The Language of Treason in Richard II Henry V and the Reformation of the Word Bibliography Index