Laughing and Weeping in Early Modern TheatresDid Shakespeare's original audiences weep? Equally, while it seems obvious that they must have laughed at plays performed in early modern theatres, can we say anything about what their laughter sounded like, about when it occurred, and about how, culturally, it was interpreted? Related to both of these problems of audience behaviour is that of the stage representation of laughing, and weeping, both actions performed with astonishing frequency in early modern drama. Each action is associated with a complex set of non-verbal noises, gestures, and cultural overtones, and each is linked to audience behaviour through one of the axioms of Renaissance dramatic theory: that weeping and laughter on stage cause, respectively, weeping and laughter in the audience. This book is a study of laughter and weeping in English theatres, broadly defined, from around 1550 until their closure in 1642. It is concerned both with the representation of these actions on the stage, and with what can be reconstructed about the laughter and weeping of theatrical audiences themselves, arguing that both actions have a peculiar importance in defining the early modern theatrical experience. |
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... laughter and weeping seem to be transhistorical absolutes which fitly emblematise the idea that drama deals in fundamental, universal human truths. Thus, Elizabeth Barrett Browning praises Shakespeare's "eyes sublime/ With tears and ...
... laughter and weeping seem to be transhistorical absolutes which fitly emblematise the idea that drama deals in fundamental, universal human truths. Thus, Elizabeth Barrett Browning praises Shakespeare's "eyes sublime/ With tears and ...
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... laughter and weeping , like the problematic emotions of which they are problematic signs , can also be studied diachronically as a set of changing cultural conventions . Information on the stage performance of tears and laughter can be ...
... laughter and weeping , like the problematic emotions of which they are problematic signs , can also be studied diachronically as a set of changing cultural conventions . Information on the stage performance of tears and laughter can be ...
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... tears , hushed and attentive , does make an acoustic impact by the depth of its silence . Early modern accounts of laughing and of weeping see them both as a syndrome with degrees of effect , not as an on - off state : so mere smiling ...
... tears , hushed and attentive , does make an acoustic impact by the depth of its silence . Early modern accounts of laughing and of weeping see them both as a syndrome with degrees of effect , not as an on - off state : so mere smiling ...
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... Tears, on the Renaissance stage, are almost utterances, since, as Leucippus says in Beaumont and Fletcher's Cupid's Revenge, "you see my teares deliuer / My meaning to you".7 Given their sheer frequency, onstage laughter and weeping are ...
... Tears, on the Renaissance stage, are almost utterances, since, as Leucippus says in Beaumont and Fletcher's Cupid's Revenge, "you see my teares deliuer / My meaning to you".7 Given their sheer frequency, onstage laughter and weeping are ...
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... laughter cues audience laughter, and that onstage weeping indicates scenes at which an early audience might be expected to be moved towards tears. Clearly, this is more of a statistical tendency than an absolute principle, and there are ...
... laughter cues audience laughter, and that onstage weeping indicates scenes at which an early audience might be expected to be moved towards tears. Clearly, this is more of a statistical tendency than an absolute principle, and there are ...
Contents
Laughing on stage | |
Weeping on stage | |
Audiences laughing | |
Audiences weeping | |
Lyly and Jonson | |
Horrid laughter | |
Shakespeares theatre of sympathy | |
Bibliography | |
Index | |
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Common terms and phrases
accounts of audience acoustic action actor Andrew Gurr argues associated audience laugh audience laughter audience reaction audience weeping Beaumont and Fletcher Bellario Ben Jonson Brome Bulwer Cambridge University Press Chapter character Chirologia Christian Turn'd Turk clown comedy London comic Dekker Democritus described discussed early modern audience early modern drama early modern stage early modern theatre effect Eleazer Eleazer's Elizabethan emotion English Drama example eyes face-pulling fool gesture Gosson grief Hamlet handkerchief Heraclitus Humphrey Moseley idea imagines implied stage directions instance John Jonson Joubert laughing and weeping laughter and weeping Levin Lust's Dominion Lyly metaphor mirth modem move laughter noise onstage laughter Oxford particular passion performance Philaster phrase play Prologue Renaissance Renaissance Drama representation of weeping Richard Richard Brome scene Shakespeare Sidney sorrow Spanish Tragedy Stephen Gosson sympathy Tarlton texts theatrical thee Thomas Thomas Dekker thou Titus Titus Andronicus Tragedy London Volpone weeping and laughter wept William