The Revenger's Tragedy, a Jacobean revenge tragedy by Cyril Tourneur, was produced and directed by Jana Veverka, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for a Master of Arts degree in the Department of Theatre of the University of British Columbia, at the Dorothy Somerset Studio Theatre, from October 15th to 18th, 1969. The following is a detailed record of that production, along with the director's analysis and interpretation of the script. The Revenger's Tragedy was performed by a predominantly student cast, in costumes and setting by Michelle Bjornson, with music arranged and played by Jim Colby. This record is divided into three main sections. The first is an essay in three parts, consisting respectively of a discussion of the historical background of the play including a brief biographical note on the author, a detailed analysis of the play with reference to the significant critical interpretations available and with reference to its position in the genre of Revenge Tragedy, and concludes with the directorial concept adopted for this production. The essay is followed by a short bibliography which is not intended as a complete list of the works on or by Tourneur, but gives an indication of those which were taken into consideration during the preparation of this production. The second section is made up of the prompt script of the production, showing cuts, blocking, significant divisions of the play into units, and indication and light and music cues. The script is followed by a unit by unit analysis of each scene, briefly discussing the directorial approach taken in terms of purpose, action, motivation, dominant emotions, character dominance and particular difficulties involved. The third section is made up of various tables, records and illustrations relating directly to the. production. Included are lists of light cues, set changes, property and costume lists. Also included are transcripts of the music arranged for this production, samples of the programme and copies of the press reviews. The illustrations include colour photographs of the production, renderings of the sets, costumes and finally blue-prints of the floor plan and working drawings. / Arts, Faculty of / Theatre and Film, Department of / Graduate

Th.--Lett.--Montpellier 3, 1986.

<p>This dissertation argues that the 'realist' ontology implicit in Renaissance allegory is both Aristotelian and neoplatonic, stemming from the need to talk about transcendence in material terms in order to make it comprehensible to fallen human intelligence. At the same time dramatists at the turn of the seventeenth century undermine 'realism' altogether, contributing to the emergence of a new meaning of 'realism' as mimesis, and with it a materialism without immanent forms. My theoretical framework is provided by Aristotle's Metaphysics, Physics and Categories rather than his Poetics, because these provide a better way of translating the concerns of postmodern critics back into premodern terms. I thus avoid reducing the religious culture of premodernity to 'ideology' or 'power' and show how premodern religion can be taken seriously as a critique of secular modernity. My conclusion from readings of Aristotle, Augustine, Hooker, Perkins, Spenser, Shakespeare, Nashe, Jonson and Tourneur is that Hell is conflated with History during the transition to modernity, that sin is revalorized as individualism, and that the translatability of terms argues for the continuing need for a concept of 'substance' in this post-Aristotelian age. I end with a reading of The Cloud of Unknowing, an anonymous contemplative work from the fourteenth century that was still being read in the sixteenth century, which offers an alternative model of the sovereign individual, and helps me to argue against the view that philosophical idealism is inherently totalitarian.</p> / Dissertation

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Columbia University, 1908. / "Chronological list of Le Tourneur's works": p. 263-265. Bibliography: p. 277-303.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Columbia University, 1908. / "Chronological list of Le Tourneur's works": p. 263-265. Bibliography: p. 277-303.

My dissertation explores Shakespeare’s negotiation of Reformation controversy about theories of salvation. While twentieth century literary criticism tended to regard Shakespeare as a harbinger of secularism, the so-called “turn to religion” in early modern studies has given renewed attention to the religious elements in Shakespeare and his contemporaries. Yet in spite of the current popularity of early modern religion studies, there remains an aura of uncertainty regarding some of the doctrinal or liturgical specificities of the period. This historical gap is especially felt with respect to theories of salvation, or soteriology. Such ambiguity, however, calls for further inquiry into historical theology. As one of the “hot-button” issues of the Reformation, salvation was fiercely contested in Shakespeare’s day, making it essential for scholarship to differentiate between conformist (Church of England), godly (puritan), and recusant (Catholic) strains of soteriology in Shakespearean plays. I explore how the language and concepts of faith, grace, charity, the sacraments, election, free will, justification, sanctification, and atonement find expression in Shakespeare’s plays. In doing so, I contribute to the recovery of a greater understanding of the relationship between early modern religion and Shakespearean drama. While I share Kastan’s reluctance to attribute particular religious convictions to Shakespeare (A Will to Believe 143), in some cases such critical guardedness has diverted attention from the religious topography of Shakespeare’s plays. My first chapter explores the tension in The Merchant of Venice between Protestant notions of justification by faith and a Catholic insistence upon works of mercy. The infamous trial scene, in particular, deconstructs cherished Protestant ideology by refuting the efficacy of faith when it is divorced from ethical behaviour. The second chapter situates Hamlet in the stream of Lancelot Andrewes’s “avant-garde conformity” (to use Peter Lake’s coinage), thereby explaining why Claudius’s prayer in the definitive text of the second quarto has intimations of soteriological agency that are lacking in the first quarto. The third chapter argues that Hamlet undermines the ghost’s association of violence and religion, thus implicitly critiquing the proliferation of religious violence on both sides of the Reformation divide. The fourth chapter argues that Calvin’s theory of the vicarious atonement of Christ, expounded so eloquently by Isabella in Measure for Measure, meets substantial resistance, especially when the Duke and others attempt to apply the soteriological principle of substitution to the domains of sexuality and law. The ethical failures that result from an over-realized soteriology indicate that the play corroborates Luther’s idea that a distinction must be maintained between the sacred and secular realms. The fifth chapter examines controversies in the English church about the (il)legitimacy of exorcising demons, a practice favoured by Jesuits but generally frowned upon by Calvinists. Shakespeare cleverly negotiates satirical source material by metaphorizing exorcisms in King Lear in a way that seems to acknowledge Calvinist scepticism, yet honour Jesuit compassion. Throughout this study, my hermeneutic is to read Shakespeare through the lens of contemporary theological controversy and to read contemporary theology through the lens of Shakespeare. / Graduate / 2023-11-20