The Plays of Christopher Marlowe and George Peele: Rhetoric and Renaissance Sensibility

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Universal-Publishers, 1999 - 358 páginas

This work is concerned with the evaluation of rhetoric as an essential aspect of Renaissance sensibility. It is an analysis of the Renaissance world viewed in terms of literary style and aesthetic. Eight plays are analysed in some detail: four by George Peele: The Battle of Alcazar, Edward I, David and Bethsabe, and The Arraignment of Paris; and four by Christopher Marlowe: Dido Queen of Carthage, Tamburlaine Part One, Dr Faustus and Edward II. The work is thus partly a comparative study of two important Renaissance playwrights; it seeks to establish Peele in particular as an important figure in the history and evolution of the theatre. Verbal rhetoric is consistently linked to an analysis of the visual, so that the reader/viewer is encouraged to assess the plays holistically, as unified works of art. Emphasis is placed throughout on the dangers of reading Renaissance plays with anachronistic expectations of realism derived from modern drama; the importance of Elizabethan audience expectation and reaction is considered, and through this the wider artistic sensibility of the period is assessed.

 

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Contenido

Introduction The Rhetorical and Linguistic Context
1
George Peele Criticism and the Problem of Realism
31
The Battle of Alcazar Epideictic Rhetoric Morality and the
49
Edward I The Rhetoric of Ethos and Theatrical Display
69
David and Bethsabe and the Clash between Ethos and Delectatio
100
The Arraignment of Paris Court Ritual and the Resolution
134
Christopher Marlowe Critical Approaches
164
Dido Queen of Carthage Mortals versus Gods and the Ethos
197
Ethical SelfCreation in Tamburlaine Part One
223
Doctor Faustus and the Tragedy of Delight
266
Edward II The Emergence of Realism and the Emptiness
303
Conclusion
323
Bibliography
341

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