From court to playhouse and back: Middleton's appropriation of the masque

Baird, C. (2015) From court to playhouse and back: Middleton's appropriation of the masque. Early Theatre, 18 (2). ISSN 1206-9078 doi: 10.12745/et.18.2.2517

Abstract/Summary

Bringing a thorough study of court masques to bear on reoriented readings of The Revenger’s Tragedy, Women Beware Women, The Changeling, and the lesser known Your Five Gallants, I show that Thomas Middleton’s intimate knowledge of the Jacobean court masque enables him to exploit its conventions, iconography, and structural functions for use in the playhouse. Middleton confidently ‘deconstructs’ masque dramaturgy to create a masque episode which encapsulates the play’s overarching theme and engineers the resolution. At the same time, by subverting the very device used to represent the court to the world, he subtly critiques king and court.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/77379
Identification Number/DOI	10.12745/et.18.2.2517
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Arts, Humanities and Social Science > School of Literature and Languages > English Literature
Publisher	Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies
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