Author’s Pen and Actor’s Voice: Playing and Writing in Shakespeare’s Theatre

313 Pages·2000·1.18 MB·English

by  Robert Weimann

Author's Pen and
Actor's Voice: Playing
and Writing in
Shakespeare's Theatre
Robert Weimann
Cambridge University Press
This study redeWnes relations between writing and playing in Shake-
speare’stheatreasmarkedbydiVerenceaswellasintegrationinboththe
provenance and the production process of early modern stages. In his
closereadingsinRichardIII,MidsummerNight’sDream,Hamlet,Troilus
and Cressida, Macbeth, Timon of Athens and other plays, the author
tracescontrarietybutalsoliminalitybetweentheimaginaryworld-in-the-
playandthevisible,audibleplaying-in-the-worldoftheplayhouse.En-
gagingbothworlds,Shakespeare’sstageprojectsverbalandperformance
practices each to ‘‘double business bound’’; together they inform his
theatre’smostpotentimpulsethenand,theauthorsuggests,now,inour
owntheatre.
RobertWeimannisProfessorofDramaattheUniversityofCalifornia,
Irvine,andmemberoftheBerlin-BrandenburgAcademyofArts.Inthe
Weld of Shakespeare and early modern studies, his most recent book-
lengthstudyisAuthorityandRepresentationinEarlyModernDiscourse
(1996).
MTMhMisM Page Intentionally Left Blank
CambridgeStudiesinRenaissanceLiteratureandCulture39
Author’sPenandActor’sVoice
CambridgeStudiesinRenaissanceLiteratureandCulture
Generaleditor
STEPHENORGEL
JacksonEliReynoldsProfessorofHumanities,StanfordUniversity
Editorialboard
AnneBarton,UniversityofCambridge
JonathanDollimore,UniversityofYork
MarjorieGarber,HarvardUniversity
JonathanGoldberg,JohnsHopkinsUniversity
NancyVickers,BrynMawrCollege
Sincethe1970stherehasbeenabroadandvitalreinterpretationofthenatureof
literarytexts,amoveawayfromformalismtoasenseofliteratureasanaspectof
social,economic,politicalandculturalhistory.WhiletheearliestNewHistorical
workwascriticizedforanarrowandanecdotalviewofhistory,italsoservedasan
importantstimulusforpost-structuralist,feminist,Marxistandpsychoanalytical
work,whichinturnhasincreasinglyinformedandredirectedit.Recentwritingon
thenatureofrepresentation,thehistoricalconstructionofgenderandofthe
conceptofidentityitself,ontheatreasapoliticalandeconomicphenomenonand
ontheideologiesofartgenerally,revealsthebreadthoftheWeld.Cambridge
StudiesinRenaissanceLiteratureandCultureisdesignedtooVerhistorically
orientedstudiesofRenaissanceliteratureandtheatrewhichmakeuseofthe
insightsaVordedbytheoreticalperspectives.Theviewofhistoryenvisionedis
aboveallaviewofourownhistory,areadingoftheRenaissanceforandfromour
owntime.
Recenttitlesinclude
34. MichaelC.Schoenfeldt,BodiesandSelvesinEarlyModernEngland:
PhysiologyandInwardnessinSpenser,Shakespeare,HerbertandMilton
35. LynnEnterline,RhetoricoftheBodyfromOvidtoShakespeare
36. DouglasA.Brooks,FromPlayhousetoPrintingHouse:DramaandAuthorship
inEarlyModernEngland
37. RobertMatz,DefendingLiteratureinEarlyModernEngland:Renaissance
LiteraryTheoryinSocialContext
38. AnnJonesandPeterStallybrass,RenaissanceClothingandtheMaterialsof
Memory
39. RobertWeimann,Author’sPenandActor’sVoice:PlayingandWritingin
Shakespeare’sTheatre
Acompletelistofbooksintheseriesisgivenattheendofthevolume
Author’s Pen and Actor’s Voice
Playing and Writing in Shakespeare’s Theatre
RobertWeimann
editedby
HelenHigbeeandWilliamWest
PUBLISHED BY CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS (VIRTUAL PUBLISHING)
FOR AND ON BEHALF OF THE PRESS SYNDICATE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF
CAMBRIDGE
The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 IRP
40 West 20th Street, New York, NY 10011-4211, USA
477 Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, VIC 3207, Australia

http://www.cambridge.org

© Robert Weimann 2000
This edition © Robert Weimann 2003

First published in printed format 2000

A catalogue record for the original printed book is available
from the British Library and from the Library of Congress
Original ISBN 0 521 781302 hardback
Original ISBN 0 521 787351 paperback

ISBN 0 511 01308 6 virtual (netLibrary Edition)
ForBarrieStavis,
AmericanPlaywright
MMTMhMMisMM PMage Intentionally Left Blank
Contents
Preface pagexi
Introduction:conjuncturesandconcepts 1
1 PerformanceandauthorityinHamlet(1603) 18
2 Anewagendaforauthority 29
The‘‘lowandignorant’’crustofcorruption 31
Towardsacirculationofauthorityinthetheatre 36
Players,printers,preachers:distractioninauthority 43
3. Penandvoice:versionsofdoubleness 54
‘‘Frivolousjestures’’vs.matterof‘‘worthiness’’(Tamburlaine) 56
BifoldauthorityinTroilusandCressida 62
‘‘UnworthyscaVold’’for‘‘sogreatanobject’’(HenryV) 70
4 PlayingwithadiVerence 79
To‘‘disWgure,ortopresent’’(AMidsummerNight’sDream) 80
To‘‘descant’’ondiVerenceanddeformity(RichardIII) 88
The‘‘self-resembledshow’’ 98
Presentation,ortheperformantfunction 102
5 HistoriesinElizabethanperformance 109
Disparityinmid-Elizabethantheatrehistory 110
Reforming‘‘awholetheatreofothers’’(Hamlet) 121
Fromcommonplayertoexcellentactor 131
DiVerentiation,exclusion,withdrawal 136
6 Hamletandthepurposesofplaying 151
Renaissancewritingandcommonplaying 153
Unworthyanticsintheglassoffashion 161
‘‘Wheninonelinetwocraftsdirectlymeet’’ 169
(Word)playandthemirrorofrepresentation 174
7 Space(in)dividable:locusandplatearevisited 180
Spaceassymbolicform:thelocus 182
Theopenspace:provenanceandfunction 192
LocusandplateainMacbeth 196
BanquetinginTimonofAthens 208
ix