Fairies, Fractious Women, and the Old Faith: Fairy Lore in Early Modern British Drama and CultureFairies, unruly women, and vestigial Catholicism constituted a frequently invoked triad in late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century drama which has seldom been critically examined and therefore constitutes a significant lacuna in scholarly treatments of early modern theater, including the work of Shakespeare. Fairy tradition has lost out in scholarly critical convention to the more masculine mythologies of Christianity and classical Greece and Rome, in which female deities either serve masculine gods or are themselves masculinized (i.e., Diana as a buckskinned warrior). However, the fairy tradition is every bit as significant in our critical attempts to situate early modern texts in their historical contexts as the references to classical texts and struggles associated with state-mandated religious beliefs are widely agreed to be. fairy, rebellious woman, quasi-Catholic trio repeatedly stages resistance to early modern conceptions of appropriate class and gender conduct and state-mandated religion in A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Cymbeline, All's Well That Ends Well, and Ben Jonson's The Alchemist. |
Contents
38 | |
Ferry Honest Knaueries in The Merry Wives of Windsor | 61 |
The Fairy Quean Fairyland Meets the Fifth Monarchy in Ben Jonsons The Alchemist | 87 |
Change You Madam Social Role Transgressions and Gender Transformations in Cymbeline | 112 |
The Fairy Defense | 144 |
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Alchemist All's Anatomy of Melancholy appear asserts associated audience body Catholic century changeling characters Christian claim Comedy court critics cultural Cymbeline Dapper dead discussion Drama early modern edited Elizabethan Ends England English Essays Face fact fairy belief fairy bride fairy lore fairy queen fairyland Falstaff female figures final gender healing Helena Herne the Hunter History human imaginative Imogen Italy James Jeffries John Jonson King linked Literature London Magic male marriage means Merry Wives Midsummer Night's Dream Mistress mortal mother nature notes Oberon offers performance period play play's plot political popular Posthumus practice Protestant Publishing references reform religious Renaissance Robert role scene seems serve sexual Shakespeare significant social spirits stage story Studies suggests theatrical Thomas tion Titania tradition turn University Press wife Windsor witchcraft witches woman women wood York