This dissertation is a fully-annotated scholarly edition of John Fletcher's 1624 play <i>Rule a Wife and Have a Wife</i>. Fletcher's comedy of intrigue about two couples who wed under false pretenses was his final non-collaborative play and represents the culmination of his achievements as a comic dramatist. It has received surprisingly little attention for a play that remained a staple of English and American theatres into the 1860s. The introduction to this edition is the most comprehensive study of the play to date. The critical examination of the domestic politics and structural patterning of the play argues that <i>Rule a Wife and Have a Wife</i> presents marriages that become protective spheres to shield spouses from the twin depredations of economic necessity and tyrannical power once the spouses have given up the urge to dominate each other. A section on Fletcher's language and style explores what Dryden praised as its imitation of the "conversation of gentlemen." The study of Fletcher's source material considers not only the two Spanish narratives he adapted, but also the resources of the King's Men and their theatres which influenced the play's composition. The introduction then contextualizes the play in its initial historical moment and the ways it reacts to England's preparations for war and the marriage negotiations for Prince Charles. The final two sections of the introduction examine the play's circulation in print and on stage. The stage history is supplemented by two appendices: a calendar of nearly 800 known performances and a collation of changes made in acting editions of the play. A recognition of the style and ubiquity of <i>Rule a Wife and Have a Wife</i> will aid scholars in understanding continuities of taste and repertoire in English drama.

The language used in critical readings of Hamlet is rife with implicitly teleological terms: according to many critics, and the ghost of King Hamlet, the story of his father's murder and Claudius' succession requires Hamlet to do something. I ask, why should Hamlet kill his uncle, revenge his father, correct his mother, become king, marry Ophelia, and produce heirs to rule when he is gone? While Hamlet's inaction is often described as delay or paralysis, I suggest that the Danish prince resists teleology through his studied ambivalence towards dynasty: land-owning, child-bearing, wars and marriage. Building on recent theoretical and historical work by scholars like Lee Edelman, Will Fisher, Margreta de Grazia and Madhavi Menon, I suggest that Hamlet, through the interventions of its main character, thwarts the assumption that the relationship between a nobleman and his land is natural, that the desire for possession and rule is inherent. Combining de Grazia's invaluable historicism with Fisher's discussion of prostheses, Ir ead the Renaissance nobleman as a prosthetic creature, physically and politically embodied by his marriage, his children, his land. In delaying the revenge he has been called upon to carry out, in hesitating to take up the crown, Hamlet defers the prostheses of nobility, and opens up a space from which to question the dynastic project.

This is a documentary edition of Abraham Flemings 1581 devotional handbook, The Diamond of Deuotion, Cut and squared into sixe seuerall points. Protestant devotional manuals were an important part of the daily religious practices of the literate Elizabethan laity, though their place in literary history often goes ignored in Renaissance studies today. Few, if any, scholarly editions of early modern devotional handbooks have been produced and while general surveys and studies exist, there remains a tremendous amount of work to be done in this field before a thorough view of their significance can be attained. Despite his many contributions to the Elizabethan printing and bookselling industry, Abraham Fleming, too, has received less than his deserved share of critical attention. Featuring "manie fruitfull lessons, auaileable to the leading of a godlie and reformed life," and drawing on a variety of educational and literary devices, The Diamond of Deuotion is demonstrative of some of the most interesting and prevalent social and spiritual forces of the day. I have included in this edition a general introduction, discussing the genre of devotional handbooks in the early modern era, the life and works of Abraham Fleming, and the social and religious context of The Diamond. I have assembled and transcribed a complete text of the 1581 Diamond and have included explanatory annotation to clarify and describe for the modern reader obscure vocabulary and historical events, and, where possible, have documented sources for the material.

No description available.

Diss. Ph. D.--Techno.--Espoo, Finland--Helsinski university of technology, 1998. / Bibliogr. p. 153-163.

Texte remanié de: Diss.--New York, N.Y.--Columbia University. / Bibliogr. p. 219-239. Notes bibliogr. Index.

Texte remanié de: Habilitationsschrift--Augsburg--Universität, 2003. / Bibliogr. p. 473-509.

Texte remanié de: Diss.--Kassel, 2001. / Contient des documents en italien et en latin. Bibliogr. p. 209-216.

Texte remanié de: Diss.--Philosophy--London--Birkbeck college, 1994. / Bibliogr. p. 216-236.

Inaugural Diss.--Philosophische Fakultät--Köln, 1999. / Bibliogr. p. 147-154. Notes bibliogr.