Time and Gender on the Shakespearean Stage

Abstract

he longs to return to; he is torn between action and inaction, waiting and not waiting (.., ). Like all revengers, he is tied to stagnating memories of past injuries, whilst at the same time he is focused on the attainment of revenge in the future. This temporal discord is a conventional element of revenge tragedies, but also of the early modern stage and of early modern culture more broadly, and, as this book will argue, it is foundational to conceptualisations of both gender and time in the period. During the opening scene of The Revenger's Tragedy, Vindice reveals his own oscillation between a retrograde temporality of mourning, as represented by the skull, and a future-focused ambition to murder the Duke, represented by Opportunity, both of which are central to his revenging quest. By conjuring the figure of Opportunity he also creates the first of many metatheatrical moments in the play: he seems to be enquiring about both his brother's and the audience's readiness for the play itself to begin, as much as he is considering whether now is the right moment for his quest Figure  Geffrey Whitney, 'In occasionem', A choice of emblems (London, ), Zr