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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... theatrical audiences themselves, arguing that both actions have a peculiar importance in defining the early modern theatrical experience. Matthew Steggle is Reader in English at Sheffield Hallam University, UK. General Editor's Preface ...
... theatrical audiences themselves, arguing that both actions have a peculiar importance in defining the early modern theatrical experience. Matthew Steggle is Reader in English at Sheffield Hallam University, UK. General Editor's Preface ...
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... theatrical ephemerality, live on through records, manuscripts, and printed books. The monographs and essay collections in this series offer original research which addresses theatre histories and performance histories in the context of ...
... theatrical ephemerality, live on through records, manuscripts, and printed books. The monographs and essay collections in this series offer original research which addresses theatre histories and performance histories in the context of ...
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... theatrical audiences themselves, and it argues that in a study of the former lie some of our best clues to the latter. In many ways, laughter and weeping are iconically central to our ideas of what drama does, and perhaps particularly ...
... theatrical audiences themselves, and it argues that in a study of the former lie some of our best clues to the latter. In many ways, laughter and weeping are iconically central to our ideas of what drama does, and perhaps particularly ...
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... theatrical 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 ...
... theatrical 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 ...
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... theatrical audience's response: firstly, a response to the stimulus itself, and secondarily, an iterative effect of response to others' responses, whether in the form of laughter or in the form of weeping. Marmontel's concern is mainly ...
... theatrical audience's response: firstly, a response to the stimulus itself, and secondarily, an iterative effect of response to others' responses, whether in the form of laughter or in the form of weeping. Marmontel's concern is mainly ...
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