Module Identifier ENM1020  
Module Title DRAMA AND THE CITY, 1580 -1625  
Academic Year 2002/2003  
Co-ordinator To Be Arranged  
Semester Intended for use in future years  
Next year offered N/A  
Next semester offered N/A  
Other staff Mr Michael J Smith  
Course delivery Seminars / Tutorials   Seminar. 2 hours per week  
Assessment Semester Assessment   Essay: 1 x 5,000 word essay    

Content

This module explores representations of London in the drama of the period. Throughout these years the theatre stood in an equivocal relation to the city: physically, in that almost all the playhouses were situated just outside the City's jurisdiction; socially and culturally, in that the players occupied a peculiar social position, uneasily perched between the commercial marketplace and the patronage networks of the court. What part did the theatre, thus anomalously situated, play in the creation and revision of its London audeinces's sense of civic identity? Wht were the relations between the theatre and the market, and how do the plays mediate these relations? What were the grounds of the city authorities' hostility to the theatre, and how did the players negotiate that hostility? These are some of the questions that we will consider. The module should be of interest to students with a general interest in the cultural history of the early modern period as well as those with a more specific interest in the theatre.

1. The Clown and the Urban Displaced

   Main text: Robert Wilson, "The Three Ladies of London"; also: Wilson, "The Three Lords and The Three Ladies of London":
   anon, "The Famous Victories of Henry V".

2. London Worthies
   
   Main text: Dekker, "The Shoemaker's Holiday"; also: Munday et.al., "The Books of Sir Thomas More, Jack Straw.

3. Fantasies of Commerce

   Main text: Jonson, "The Devil is an Ass"; also Jonson, "The Alchemist"; anon, "The London Prodigal.

4. Girding at Citizens

   Main texts: Jonson, Chapman and Marston: "Eastward Ho!"; also Beaumont, "The Knight of the Burning Pestle"; Middleton
   "A Trick to Catch the Old One".

5. Festivity and the Marketplace
   
   Main texts: Middleton, "A Chaste Maid in Cheapsider"; Jonson, "Bartholomew Fair".