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THE UNIVERSITY OF TULSA
THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
“THE ELDER SHALL SERVE THE YOUNGER”:
PLAYWRIGHTS AND BIBLICAL
COMMENTARY IN THE
RENAISSANCE
by
Sue Ayers McCurdy Hosterman
A dissertation submitted in partial fullment of
the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
in the Discipline of English
The Graduate School
The University of Tulsa
1999
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THE UNIVERSITY OF TULSA
THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
•‘THE ELDER SHALL SERVE THE YOUNGER”:
PLAYWRIGHTS AND BIBLICAL
COMMENTARY IN THE
RENAISSANCE
by
Sue Ayers McCurdy Hosterman
A DISSERTATION
APPROVED FOR THE DISCIPLINE OF
ENGLISH
By Dissertation Committee
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ABSTRACT
Hosterman, Sue Ayers McCurdy (Doctor of Philosophy in English)
“The Elder Shall Serve the Younger”: Playwrights and Biblical Commentary in the
Renaissance (3SI pp. - ChapterIII)
Directed by Professor Lars Engle
(132 words)
Participating in a corrective movement which seeks to reinstate a religious and
theological dimension in criticism of Elizabethan culture and of canonical literary texts,
this dissertation explores 16th-century reception of two particularly provocative scriptural
narratives, the Jacob-Esau saga in Genesis and the Parable of the Prodigal in Luke 1 S.
The parable can itself be heard as Jesus’ retelling of the story of father, sons, and brothers
in conflicts over inheritance. This study describes ways these stories figured in the
multifarious forms of commentary, interpretation, allusion, and re-enactment that
constituted the life of the Bible in 16th-century English culture. The specific secular
dramas discussed are Marlowe’s The Jew of Malta, Shakespeare’s The Merchant of
Venice, and Shakespeare’s second English history tetralogy, Richard II, 1 Henry IV, 2
Henry IV, and Henry V.
HI
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I wish to express my thanks to the University of Tulsa and the Department of English for
undergirding my graduate studies over the past seven years. Excellent teachers and
challenging courses in the earlier Master’s program spurred both the desire and the
opportunity for continuing as a candidate for the Ph. D. I am grateful to the members of
my committee who have overseen both the qualifying examinations and the preparation
of the dissertation. Dr. Lars Engle, Dr. Joseph Kestner, and Dr. Hermione De Almeida
have my deep gratitude for direction, criticism, and encouragement throughout an
arduous process. The chair of my committee, Dr. Engle, merits special thanks for
expecting much, for prodding my understanding, and for holding me to his own high
standards. In an early graduate course, Dr. Engle goaded me to argue in my writing or
“we would have nothing to say”; in the ensuing years, he has graciously supported my
arguing with him. To him I would offer the honored appellation—A/ngw/er et Amicus,
Teacher and Friend.
My thanks are also due to a large and lively family of perpetual students:
To my parents, Dr. Marion Wallace and Anne Lide McCurdy, who endowed me;
To my siblings, Mary Anne, Runita, Jean, Jane, and Si, who encouraged me;
To my sons, Jack, Clayton, Gregory, and Benjamin, who believed in me; and
To my husband, Greg, who sustained me.
iv
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT..........................................................................................................................iii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS....................................................................................................iv
INTRODUCTION, “THE ELDER SHALL SERVE THE YOUNGER”.........................1
CHAPTER I, JACOB’S BIRTHRIGHT, BARABAS’S BLESSINGS...........................22
CHAPTER II, THE MERCHANT OF VENICE: TWICE TOLD TALES,
OR THE COVENANT AND THE KINGDOM............................... 127
CHAPTER III, WHO IS THE PRODIGAL? WHO IS THE PRINCE?........................252
CONCLUSION...................................................................................................................334
BIBLIOGRAPHY...............................................................................................................337
v
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INTRODUCTION
“THE ELDER SHALL SERVE THE YOUNGER”
To re-enter the Elizabethan world where religion encompassed life and the Bible
was the "common expositor" for all mysteries and all knowledge, we have to put aside
our own notions of separation of church and state, of sacred and secular, of intuitions and
ratiocinations. In a centerless vortex of restless change, late 20th century people have
forgotten much of their shared heritage and so must make a conscious effort to appreciate
how profoundly the Bible influenced understanding of every aspect of Elizabethan life.
The struggles for control of the Church in the 16th and 17th centuries were in part
struggles for authority to shape interpretation of the Bible; Princes and Popes, preachers
and priests, archbishops and prelates engaged in the contest, but the issue spilled over
into the life of the laity as well. With the Bible increasingly available for personal
reading, everyone had an opinion, and so poets and playwrights, together with ordinary
folk of the City, dared with ministers and magistrates to comment. At stake was temporal
and spiritual power—both to name the songs all should sing and to order what they meant.
J. E. Neale recreates a scene in his 1934 biography Queen Elizabeth that
demonstrates the interwovenness of life in the 16th century and invites a modem
interpretation.1
1
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2
On Saturday January 14, 1559, the Coronation procession of the new Queen
Elizabeth set out from the Tower of London to dazzle the City with her presence. Five
times Elizabeth and her elaborate entourage paused at selected sites-Gracechurch,
Comhill, Cheapside, Little Conduit, and St.Paul's. Amid streaming banners and avid
crowds, pageants prepared by City authorities with imposing spectacle and sound
proclaimed London's faith in the young queen. Scenes depicting her worthy parentage
(Anne Boleyn included), her own virtues in governance, her faithful bond to her people,
and her timely emergence as a new Deborah,the judge and restorer of the House of
Israel'" (Neale 70) delighted the Queen as she watched from her litter and accepted the
entertainment of her joyful subjects. Within the entertainment was also instruction,
however, for each pageant asserted the religious temper of London with expectations that
the Queen would incline her ear in support. Chief among the virtues for government was
acceptance of "pure religion" by which ignorance and superstition could be trampled out.
Lest any doubt linger, the fourth pageant made explicit the hopes and meanings of these
brief Moralities. The centerpiece of this pageant was old Father Time whom Elizabeth
gladly acknowledged as her guardian to this moment. Time emerged from a cave set
between two starkly contrasting hillside scenes. One was a wasteland, barren and
desolate but for a dour, broken youth sitting dully under a leafless tree, the other, an Eden
of fruitful greenery, displaying a gaily adorned youth standing expectantly on a high
summit under a laurel tree. Into this scene Time led forth his daughter Truth who carried
an English Bible in her hands. A child limned the meaning: the Bible furnished not only
1 John E. Neale, Queen Elizabeth (London: J. Cape, 1938. New York: Ballantine Books, 1956).
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Description:Participating in a corrective movement which seeks to reinstate a religious and theological dimension in criticism of Elizabethan culture and of canonical literary texts, this dissertation explores 16th-century reception of two particularly provocative scriptural narratives, the Jacob-Esau saga in G
