Unit 1 literatura Inglesa siglos 17 y 18, Apuntes de Literatura inglesa

¡Descarga Unit 1 literatura Inglesa siglos 17 y 18 y más Apuntes en PDF de Literatura inglesa solo en Docsity! Shakespeare’s London Eric Rasmussen, Ian DeJong Early modern London was an expanding metropolis filled with diverse life, from courtiers, merchants and artisans to prostitutes, beggars and cutpurses. Here Professor Eric Rasmussen and Ian DeJong describe the city that shaped Shakespeare's imagination. Shakespeare’s London was home to a cross-section of early modern English culture. Its populace of roughly 100,000 people included royalty, nobility, merchants, artisans, laborers, actors, beggars, thieves, and spies, as well as refugees from political and religious persecution on the continent. Drawn by England’s budding economy, merchants from the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, and even further afield set up shop in London. As a result, Londoners would hear a variety of accents and languages as they strolled about the city – a chorus of voices from across Europe and from all walks of life The term 'court' referred both to these palaces and to the people who surrounded the monarch and travelled with her: a thousand or more servants, attendants, and courtiers. The court's frequent movements appear to have been motivated less by the queen's desire for a change of scenery than necessitated by a very basic practicality: those thousand bodies producing waste quickly overwhelmed the sanitation facilities in the palaces. Although flush toilets were invented by one of Elizabeth's courtiers, John Harrington (the American slang-word for toilet, 'john', thus honours its inventor), no indoor plumbing was installed in any of the royal castles during Shakespeare's lifetime. Thus, life at court could be luxurious, but it could also stink London in Shakespeare When Shakespeare was active as an author, writing about London was en vogue. Ben Jonsonand Thomas Dekker, among others, were famous for their ‘city comedies’. Although Shakespeare never contributed to this popular genre, London appears as a setting in several of the history plays, such as the two parts of Henry IV, where Falstaff’s home base, the Boar’s Head Inn, is located in Eastcheap. In a later historical period, but an earlier play, Richard III has his brother Clarence and his nephews murdered in the Tower of London. In the seldom-performed Henry VIII, the trial of Katherine takes place in Blackfriars. This name would have been well-known to early modern theatregoers, who would likely have attended plays in the indoor playhouse located in Blackfriars – just below the room in which Henry VIII places the trial. Court and Royalty Shakespeare’s London was bordered by royal sites: Westminster Abbey on the west, where every English monarch had been crowned since 1066; and the Tower on the east, where several had been imprisoned. Queen Elizabeth and King James had several palaces at their disposal in and around London: Whitehall (the largest palace in all of Europe), Hampton Court, Greenwich, Richmond, Westminster, St. James, and Windsor Castle. These were magnificent structures inside and out, and afforded the royals the greatest comforts to be found in London, such as fireplaces in nearly every room, along with oak paneled walls hung with tapestries, providing warmth and insulation. Queen Elizabeth would move from one palace to another during the calendar year, usually spending Christmas at Whitehall, New Year's at Richmond, and then Easter in Windsor. Making a Living in London Though royalty, the court, and aristocrats may have been the most visible members of London society, a large portion of early modern London’s population worked for a living. The city’s tradesmen, artificers, merchants and manufacturers may claim much of the credit for London’s growth before and during Shakespeare’s lifetime. The printed word was among the commodities actively produced and sold in Shakespeare’s London. Technological advances made it possible to churn out pamphlets, sermons, plays, poems, proclamations, diatribes, and jeremiads at a tremendous rate. Booksellers took these varied materials and made them available to patrons from across London – nobility, wealthy bourgeois, artisans and even the literate poor. Although anyone who had some level of trade, craft, or artisanal skill could make a life in London, one obstacle they faced was the guild system – a holdover from a medieval mode of organizing and regulating labour. Guilds had provided valuable social and commercial structure, establishing hierarchies (from apprentice to master) based on experience and skill level. They also provided a means of excluding undesirable members. If for some reason a London tradesman fell into disfavour in a guild, he could be censured or even expelled. Such exclusion could have drastic consequences, plunging the hapless tradesman into poverty – which, in London, was a serious predicament. Early modern London was a bad place to be poor. Poverty and the Plague In Shakespeare’s time, the poor had little hope of escaping hunger, cold, damp, disease, and exposure. Beggars flooded the streets. Some were veterans – often maimed or disfigured – of the ongoing, undeclared war between Spain and England. Others were freemen who had been expelled from guilds. Still others had come up from the country perhaps hoping to find work, or trying to avoid family entanglements, or running from the law. Well after the period of the Black Death, the great pandemic of the 14th century, the bubonic plague continued to wax and wane in Europe. London, with its rapidly ballooning population and constant flow of new arrivals, was especially vulnerable. Despite the best attempts of the government, the plague remained a part of daily life in London. The theatres, considered to be hotbeds for contagion, were repeatedly closed throughout Shakespeare’s career. In the minds of London’s more prosperous citizens, fear of the plague was linked in part to distaste for the poor, the disabled, the homeless. Besides condemning them as disease- ridden, the upper and middle classes often demonized London’s less fortunate as criminal Yet it is true that in London, as in any great city, there were many who broke the law, whether reluctantly or eagerly. Shouldering through a rough crowd in the city, Shakespeare might have passed by thieves in pillories; small boys might have brushed past him, trying to pick his pockets. Cutpurses might have tracked the well-dressed Shakespeare, testing the edges of the knives they used to slice the strings that attached purses to clothing. Prostitutes, brightly painted with lead-based makeup, might have leaned out of casements, calling to potential customers. Shakespeare might have seen, and steered clear of, muscled, scarred bruisers, sullen veterans of the war with Spain, spoiling for a fight with whoever crossed them. The Great River In addition to documenting the plight of the poor, Stow’s Survey (in its 1603 edition) also provided a vivid depiction of the river Thames, the great contributor to London’s emergence as Europe’s largest, most important city. By way of the river, Stow wrote, The court The Queen was ‘the fount of honour’. The quickest route to such honour, and influence, and power, and wealth, was via the court, and the best way of succeeding there was to attract the Queen’s attention. Many an aspiring young man mortgaged his family estates in the country, spent the proceeds on ultra-fashionable garments, and set out for London. He might not succeed, in which case he slunk back to the country hoping to retrieve his shattered fortune. But for those that did, including Christopher Hatton, Francis Drake and Elizabeth’s godson John Harrington, royal favour could provide a good, if precarious, living. Another possibility was to stay in your family mansion and invite the Queen to visit you there. If she accepted, an immense expenditure on house and grounds would be needed, which would be wasted, if in the end the royal visit never happened. Merchants Outside the glittering court circles, the merchants led comparatively quiet lives. Most lived in London. The focus of their ambition was to be the lord mayor of London, elected by the aldermen. The mayor was powerful enough, on occasion, to oppose the monarch, for example, when the City insisted that theatres should be closed during an epidemic of plague in London, although Elizabeth would have preferred them to continue since she enjoyed a good play. The livery companies The sinews of the merchants’ community were the livery companies. (They still flourish, and still wield enormous influence in the City.) There were nearly a hundred companies in London, of which 12 were ‘Great companies’, controlling between them almost everything that was bought and sold in London, from pins – the Haberdashers – to wine – the Vintners. The Clothworkers controlled the finishing processes of cloth, the Ironworkers supplied iron bars for the building trade, and iron rims for wheels. The Carpenters regulated the building trade as all new buildings used timber. The Goldsmiths supervised the quality of gold and silver articles, which had to be marked in their Company’s hall (‘hall-marked’) before they could be sold. The livery companies, in short, had Elizabethan trade sewn up. Apprentices A young man would be apprenticed to a master belonging to a livery company, to learn the trade. Some companies, such as the Goldsmiths’ Company, could charge a considerable premium for an apprenticeship indenture. As he progressed, the young man changed from a liability needing to be shown every detail, to a trusted employee who could negotiate on behalf of his master, handling significant sums of money. The life of an apprentice was not always enjoyable. He had no right to pay, although his master might voluntarily recognise his usefulness if he stayed the course and proved his worth. The apprenticeship lasted at least seven years, sometimes longer, during which the young man was bound to ‘serve his master faithfully and keep his (trade) secrets’. He could not hope to be released until he was at least 24. During this hormone-driven period of his life ‘he shall not commit fornication nor contract matrimony … he shall not play at cards … or any other lawful game. He shall not haunt playhouses nor absent himself from the master’s service day or night unlawfully …’ The master’s obligations were only to keep his apprentice in food and lodging, and clothe him in the plain blue clothes appropriate to his standing, and teach him his trade. No wonder that the drop-out rate was so high, often around 50 per cent. Some who had learned enough marketable skills decided to try their luck in the provinces, after several years of near-servitude in London. From the frequent references to apprentices brawling and rioting and attending playhouses, one suspects that the strict rules preventing them from almost any normal enjoyment were often flouted. Once the apprentice had completed his term, he became a freeman of London. He could either become a journeyman – paid by the day, or, in French the journée – or set up on his own account. If so, he would rise through the ranks of his company until he became entitled to wear its distinctive uniform, or ‘livery’. Other employments For those who had not managed to climb on to the livery company ladder, finding a job was more complicated. There were places in educated families for ‘governors’ – tutors – but not for governesses: daughters were taught by their mothers. Rich men maintained huge households. The Earl of Oxford came on a social visit to London in 1562 with 140 mounted retainers, all wearing his livery to show their allegiance. Small families employed one or two serving men and servant maids. Ships’ captains would sign on almost anyone; there might be a chance of prize money, but a greater chance of death by shipwreck or disease. In the countryside, there was usually seasonal work to be had. But there was no security, no pension, let alone any right to sick pay. The poor What happened to the poor, the people who could find no work, or were too disabled to work? The monasteries used to look after them, but no longer. It finally dawned on the government that the poor could not just be left to die; something had to be done for them by the state. It came, at first, and cynically, in the shape of begging licences, limited to an area, such as a parish, and a period, between six months and two years. Since it was made so difficult to obtain them, many were forged. The welfare system By 1569 some sort of welfare system was in place in the City of London, an example followed nationally by a general Act of 1572 which formed the basis of the national Poor Law until 1834. Its aim was to separate the ‘poor, aged and impotent [i.e. disabled]’ people, whom the state could and should help, from the thriftless and work-shy, whom the state would not help. 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Over the next four decades, often in collaboration with the theatre designer Inigo Jones, he wrote many entertainments for the royal family. Friendships and rivalries Though he had many long-lasting friendships, Jonson seems to have been quarrelsome, thin-skinned and, in the words of his good friend William Drummond, ‘a great lover and praiser of himself’. In 1598 he killed his opponent in a duel, narrowly avoiding execution for manslaughter. Jonson took aim at his fellow playwrights, who mocked his bricklaying background and sense of superiority, in his viciously satiric play Poetaster (c. 1601). His relationship with Jones at the Stuart court was finally destroyed by rivalry. Fame and death Jonson masterminded the publication of his Workes in 1616, which collected his entertainments, some of his poetry, and many of his plays. This unprecedented volume set the scene for William Shakespeare’s posthumous First Folio in 1623. Jonson was rewarded with a royal pension and, with Shakespeare’s death, was widely regarded as England’s greatest living author. He journeyed on foot to Scotland in 1618, and was appointed City Chronologer to the City of London in 1628 (‘To collect and set down all memorable acts of this City and occurences thereof’). The same year he possibly suffered a paralytic stroke. He died on 6 August 1637, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. An introduction to Volpone Sean McEvoy Sean McEvoy explores Ben Jonson's Volpone, looking at Jonson's daring, unique brand of comedy and the play's treatment of money, greed and morality. When Ben Jonson wrote Volpone (c. 1605–06) he broke new ground in the English theatre. He produced an innovative kind of high-energy, intensely theatrical comedy which sustained both high moral seriousness and exuberant hilarity. Following the Roman writers he admired so much, Jonson set out to make his audience think about the troublingly subversive but exhilarating power of money and what it does to those who are consumed by greed for it, but also to give them a very good time in the theatre. Volpone combines its moral into a very funny, entertaining play. Jonson promises the audience that it will ‘rub your cheeks, til red with laughter’ (Prologue). The action is fast- paced, non-stop and demands our attention, and Jonson boldly breaks rules and generic conventions along the way. Money: A different kind of beast The play’s characters might have the names of animals in Italian to suggest that it is a kind of fable (a story with a moral where the animals stand for human characteristics). ‘Volpone’ is the Italian for fox, for example, and ‘mosca’, the name of his servant-sidekick, means fly. But this play is about a different kind of beast. It’s about money, and how it transforms everyone and everything once it’s let off the leash. Jonson set Volpone in Venice, a great and wealthy trading city known as much for the double-dealing of its merchants as for the faithlessness of its women. But London in the early years of the 17th century, where Jonson lived and worked, was also a place where an unregulated capitalism was letting rip, where speculation and profiteering ran riot, displacing many of the old certainties of life. It is against this background – which is his world as much as ours – that Jonson wrote his play. Volpone: A complicated protagonist At the heart of the play is the Fox himself. Volpone is a childless Venetian nobleman who pretends to be seriously ill so that rich fools who are even greedier than him will give him present after present in the hope that they will be the ones to get his treasure when he dies. He’s a cunning, selfish trickster – but Jonson makes us enjoy his company, crafting a complex protagonist who both attracts and repels. In the opening act, Volpone talks to the audience. He takes us into his confidence in his accomplished soliloquies and asides, and with his hilarious upstagings of his avaricious and deranged visitors. When he next adopts a disguise (of a quack medicine seller, a nice irony) to get a glimpse of the beautiful Celia – the closely guarded wife of one of his dupes, Corvino – his flamboyant torrent of language (2.2.33ff.) stands in great contrast to the terse, coarse, sadistic threats which Corvino makes to Celia (2.5.47–72) when he finds she has thrown a flirtatious handkerchief towards the disguised Volpone (2.2.228-29). Volpone’s a cheat and a villain, but he’s fun. He builds a relationship with his audience by making them his close confidants and almost accomplices as he takes great risks to follow wherever his urge for pleasure takes him. The fact that his dupes are vain, paranoid monsters only makes us like him more. To create this close relationship between Volpone and the audience, Jonson uses a great amount of dramatic irony. Volpone makes sure we know what’s really going on while everyone but Mosca is the victim of his various scams. Dramatic irony works to enhance our emotions in response to what happens on stage because of the feeling of superiority we get when being in the know. It’s only when Mosca takes his chance to double-cross Volpone (5.5.12–14) that Volpone himself becomes the victim of dramatic irony –and of the money-obsessed society he previously exploits. Jonson’s use of dramatic irony, like the so- frequent soliloquies and asides, brings the audience right into the world of the play, blurring the distinction between appearance and reality in this so theatrically self-conscious of plays. Money, integrity and shifting identities Although the audience is initially engaged and entertained by Volpone, there is, of course, another side that Jonson shows us. Volpone and Mosca have no integrity, neither in the moral sense, nor, more significantly, in the sense that they are unified, solid characters. If, as Volpone says, ‘riches’ is ‘the dumb god, that giv’st all men tongues’ and ‘mak’st men do all things’ (1.1.22–23), then the pursuit of it is also the reason for the constant shifting of Volpone’s identity: from well man to sick man and back again several times, to the mountebank Scoto of Mantua, to the court officer (‘Commendatore’) of the final act. When he finally gets Celia alone in his bedroom he spends his time telling her of his past acting triumphs (3.7.158–64), and then tells her how they will make love in lots of different costumes (3.7.220–34). Performance, not ‘reality’, is everything to Volpone. Later, Corbaccio’s son Bonario rescues Celia when Volpone threatens to ‘force’ her (3.7.263). Volpone escapes the accusation of attempted rape by reprising his role of moribund invalid in the courtroom. Afterwards, he tells Mosca that the thrill he got from the public deception was even better than if he had his way with Celia: ‘the pleasure of all womankind’s not like it’ (5.2.11). Mosca is similarly motivated by performance and appearance. When he gets a soliloquy at the beginning of Act 3 we might think that we’re finally going to hear what his plan is, and whether he intends to betray his master as we suspect. But he just tells us that he takes pride in being a true ‘parasite’, that can ‘be here,/ And there, and here, and yonder, all at once’ (3.1.26–27), and who can ‘change a visor [facial expression] swifter than a thought!’ (3.1.29). Mosca is all incoherent surfaces and no depth. Greed for money dissolves identity in the play, turning people into salesmen-performers. There’s delight in Jonson’s process; it’s only afterwards that we re-evaluate what we’ve been swept along by. The rule of money, which gives all things a price, requires that everything becomes exchangeable with every other thing. When money takes charge it hollows out our sense of who we are and what is right. This is how the play challenges its audience: like the ancient theatre that Jonson so admired it makes us examine our views about the kind of society we live in. Spending money brings us good things, but what does the pursuit of it do to us? The greed of Volpone and Mosca makes them lose any sense of who they are. The dupes Corbaccio, Corvino and Voltore are fools, but it’s more than just their greed that Jonson condemns. Greed corrupts their morality, turning them into monsters who disinherit a son, prostitute a wife or humiliate themselves in public. Breaking conventions: The city comedy genre and the play’s ending