Constructing the Canon of Early Modern Drama

Abstract

For one hundred years the drama of Shakespeare's contemporaries has been consistently represented in anthologies, edited texts, and the critical tradition by a familiar group of about two dozen plays running from Kyd's Spanish Tragedy to Ford's 'Tis Pity She's a Whore by way of Dekker, Jonson, Middleton and Webster. How was this canon created, and what ideological and institutional functions does it serve? What preceded it, and is it possible for it to become something else? Jeremy Lopez takes up these questions by tracing a history of anthologies of 'non-Shakespearean' drama from Robert Dodsley's Select Collection of Old Plays (1744) through those recently published by Blackwell, Norton, and Routledge. Containing dozens of short, provocative readings of unfamiliar plays, this book will benefit those who seek a broader sense of the period's dazzling array of forms.

Economies of Scale: Shakespeare and Book History

“…A similar example, further afield, is the current disagreement over long‐term canon formation in English Renaissance drama anthologies, a type of book that began to appear in the mid‐eighteenth century and one that is now universally relied upon by students and teachers of Shakespeare. Jeremy Lopez's recent Constructing the Canon of Early Modern Drama – only incidentally a work of book history but one that has major implications for the field – tracks the changing contents of non‐Shakespearean anthologies, which until the late nineteenth century were built on the progressive accumulation of plays to serve an elite antiquarian readership. With the expansion of mass higher education in the twentieth century, Lopez argues, the drama anthology evolved “by recuperating the idea of a ‘middle class’ audience” – focalized through Shakespeare – “as the source of early modern drama's aesthetic value” (23–4).…”

“…Jeremy Lopez's recent Constructing the Canon of Early Modern Drama – only incidentally a work of book history but one that has major implications for the field – tracks the changing contents of non‐Shakespearean anthologies, which until the late nineteenth century were built on the progressive accumulation of plays to serve an elite antiquarian readership. With the expansion of mass higher education in the twentieth century, Lopez argues, the drama anthology evolved “by recuperating the idea of a ‘middle class’ audience” – focalized through Shakespeare – “as the source of early modern drama's aesthetic value” (23–4). The result was a drastically reduced “shadow canon” tethered to a Shakespearean standard of unified form, individuated character, and historical representativeness.…”

“…The result was a drastically reduced “shadow canon” tethered to a Shakespearean standard of unified form, individuated character, and historical representativeness. In 60 short chapters arranged artfully in cycles, Lopez offers snippet‐readings of non‐Shakespearean drama on its own aesthetic terms, ultimately proposing a new kind of anthology and experimenting with the book‐form of scholarly monograph itself. Brett Greatley‐Hirsch, at work on his own survey, Reproducing English Renaissance Drama , 1711–2016 , demurs from Lopez's project on the basis that it is uncomprehensive in scope and “awkwardly straddles the line between scholarship and book‐as‐art‐object” (“Moving Targets” 122).…”

“…In 60 short chapters arranged artfully in cycles, Lopez offers snippet‐readings of non‐Shakespearean drama on its own aesthetic terms, ultimately proposing a new kind of anthology and experimenting with the book‐form of scholarly monograph itself. Brett Greatley‐Hirsch, at work on his own survey, Reproducing English Renaissance Drama , 1711–2016 , demurs from Lopez's project on the basis that it is uncomprehensive in scope and “awkwardly straddles the line between scholarship and book‐as‐art‐object” (“Moving Targets” 122). For Greatley‐Hirsch as for Erne, the promise of truth lies more with the bird's‐eye view than with the particulars of theory and interpretation.…”

Much Virtue in <i>O-Oh</i>: A Case Study

“…In Massinger's Maid of Honor (1621), Sylli's lament to Camiola on losing her to the king climaxes with 'Oh, oh, oh' to which she responds: 'Do not rore so' (4.5.12). 7 In 1 Hieronimo (1604) an assassin kills Alcario by mistake, and he dies with 'Oh, oh, oh!' to which another figure responds: 'Whose groan was that?'…”