Readings:
* "The Fetching Home of May" (111-116)
* Court Entertainments (117-125)
* Laneham, "A Letter Describing the Entertainment of the Queen at Kenilworth" (126-134)
* Coventry Records of the Hock Tuesday Play (134-139)
* The Fairy Queen (138-140)
* Entertainment at Elvetham (140-142)
* Spenser, The Shepheardes Calendar (142-148)
Answer TWO of the following:
1. According to these readings, how did contemporary poets, playwrights, and noblemen appropriate Elizabeth into their performances? What 'role' did she have to play, and how did they attempt to flatter and/or enshrine her on the stage?
2. In the Conventry Records of the Hock Tuesday Play, we find receipts for all the behind-the-scenes business of the Elizabethan theater, including most hilariously, "paid God and dead man, 20d." How do these records (and other readings, such as Laneham's Letter) help us appreciate the world of Bottom, Quince, etc. in A Midsummer Night's Dream, and explain why Shakespeare took such pains to include them in his play?
3. Though nothing overtly sexual occurs in A Midsummer Night's Dream, the presence of sex is on every page, since the theme is love, courtship, and at times, even rape. How does the popular ballad, "The Fetching Home of May" help us understand the elaborate rites of May that all Elizabetheans celebrated--and which the play itself is a celebration of?
4. Based on many of these readings, what kind of theater did Elizabethan audiences (both common and royal) most enjoy? How does Shakespeare acknowledge these preferences? Do we expect the same things in our own theater (movies, particularly)? Where do we agree and disagree on the aesthetics of stagecraft?
1. As we can see with the incident with the Hombre Salvagio, he jumps out and breaks his oak stick in Queen Elizabeth’s honor. She gracefully remains on her horse though it is frightened by him. This gives Elizabeth a chance to show she is brave and still lady-like. This occurs after she returns from the hunt so the timing is right to reinforce the idea of her being skilled among man. This event was planned to give her the opportunity to show off her skills, which does flatter her in a sense, but makes me wonder if it is somewhat insulting. It seems to suggest that she needs a staged encounter to show she’s “gentlemanly enough”. Her role can be very multi-faceted as one of the readings suggests that she transcends things like gender, rank, and culture.
ReplyDelete2. It was his word, a world that was relevant to him. These receipts show the elaborate nature of the preparation for plays. I think reading these receipts does the same thing that watching Bottom’s party prepare for their play does which is getting a look into the world of how it was back then. It was my impression that Bottom’s group learned their lines in about a day. That seems crazy to me. I think Shakespeare is pointing to the fact that entertainment is a lot of work.
Elyse Marquardt
ReplyDeleteQuestion 2: Having these receipts and records shows us an important point: just as community theater thrives in several small towns today, so it used to thrive even more in England in the 1500s and 1600s. It was even a way of making money for those peasants who were in need of a little cash. Shakespeare probably included Bottom and his friends in Midsummer Night's Dream, because he knew that many commoners who would be watching his play would have had experience with this very same thing. It was also a way for him to write about theater, which he obviously was rather fond of. It was familiar to him and would ring true with the audience.
Question 3: "The Fetching Home of May" is about an event that simply tried to romanticize a lot of people unchaining their basic instincts. Girls dressed as attractively as they could and hoped that a young man would like them enough to "get their gown green." Our ballad here does a good job of making it all sound exciting and fun and romantic. However, when looked at more closely, the rites of May seem like they were just a day when the body's desires were glorified even more highly than usual.
Kelsey Tiger
ReplyDelete2. I think the records help us appreciate the world of Bottom, Quince, etc because they helped to get a glimpse into the commoner’s life. It seems like it took a lot of work and people to help make a play what it is. These records show that not only is it the main characters that make a play successful but also the commoners’ labor and/or acting. I think Shakespeare included them because he wanted his play to relate to everyone in the crowd.
3. May seems to represent female sexuality. On page 111 it says that “May was the month of female fecundity, May Day a fertility feast, and the ‘green gowns’ acquired by the maidens as they plummeted onto the grass with their lovers were legend”, while it also says that “it was always possible for green gowns to be acquired during harmless activities like picnicking.” They want love and take joy in searching for the green gown. While it doesn’t all have to be about sexuality, they hope for love and/or to find a courtship. Love is recognized and something that is common in this play, or so it seems.
-Rocky Moore
ReplyDelete3. The play is a celebration of exactly that- the rites of May and the rituals that come along with those activities of the day. It seems like a huge game of like tag between the women and men and probably was for the ages near their teen and young twenties when they did this. It is as if this kind of dramatic chase for the girl and vice versa is encouraged and something that actually goes on in real life in comparisons to the play that displays the chase though very humorous and entertaining, the same could possibly be said for the rites of May. If one was spectating that event you probably would have been just as entertained like it was the play itself. "Much mirth and sport they make, running at Barley-break: Good lack! what pains they take for their green gowns". This illustrates the point made above about how its a spectacle and all the men and women are feverishly chasing one another just for the chance of love. Imagine watching that!
4. The most common element seems to be that of the mythical and fairy, magical world that is in almost every play or talked about in every part of these contextual readings. In the letter describing the entertainment for the Queen, the entertainment that is described is unbelievable. It is like our special effects we use in movies today but done in real life. I mean it even said that they had a pretend battle on a man made lake just for the Queen. They had people really dress up as Titania and perform for the Queen right outside of the bedroom she was staying in. Its as if they took all of the entertainment we have at a Disneyland and brought it directly to the Queens feet. truly remarkable and obviously displays what the people of the time were in to.
1. While reading the contextual documents, I was a little confused as to how Elizabeth was brought in to the performances of certain plays. As we have discussed in the past, it is somewhat disrespectful for the lower class to address the higher class so I was confused as to why she would be involved in the play in any way. After the discussion in class today, it was made clear to me that she wasn't really meant to be a part of the plays she was just thrown in to them spur of the moment, completely unrehearsed and completely unintentional. To me, it would seem that she would be somewhat upset by this but it seems as though she handled it really light heartedly, it didn't seem to bother her.
ReplyDelete3. In class, we discussed that the rites of May was in a way a rite of passage, it was the changing of the season and a time when anything goes because it is taking place in the woods, where the magic happens. You didn't have to be married to roll around and get a little "green on your gown." In a Midsummer Nights Dream it seems that they are a little more held back, they don't believe that just anything goes. Hermia has her clear chance with Lysander in the woods to get a little "green on her gown" but she refuses. It very well could have happened and no one would have ever known about it. It seems to me, the women in A Midsummer Nights Dream are a bit more prude.
2. I found this interesting for two reasons. The first was that it showed just how much money, and therefore interest, was involved in the theatre even back then. It was a prime source of entertainment, even if we don't really think about that now. It was also interesting because the actors didn't have names. The characters were the ones getting paid. It was almost as if the actors were unimportant or irrelevant to the play. The language and characters were the important thing. I think that Bottom and Quince were added into the play because Shakespeare wanted people to see that actors are real people, and a lot more work goes into putting a play together than the majority of people realized.
ReplyDelete3. May back them was a time of freedom. It was an almost pagan belief that if they did such acts of frivolity and happiness the earth would respond likewise, giving them a peaceful and prosperous year. However, the way they did that was extremely sexual. The ballad even alludes to sex with the "green on your gown" line. The play was a little more subdued, but it was definitely hinted at. Lysander attempts to sleep with Hermia in the woods. Demetrius threatens to rape Helena. All of the elements for the May festivals are there, Shakespeare's women were just a little less accommodating.
1. Elizabeth was a larger than life figure during the time of Shakespeare. It was common for plays to involve the audience in some way, especially noble guests. The danger of incorporating these non actors is they often didn't know what to expect, and definitely hadn't rehearsed. Pg 129-130 tells a story about Queen Elizabeth nearly being thrown from her horse after engaging in a surprise role in a play. After she relieves the situation by telling everyone she's ok, everyone agrees that was best part of the show!
ReplyDelete3. "The Fetching Home of May" was a ballad that explained the leniency shown towards ladies engaging in intimate acts during the month of May. Within Elizabethean culture to acquire a green gown, meant to mess around with a man in the woods, basically. Magical things happened in the woods, so maybe that was one way they justified their actions. Love was a major theme for "Midsummer Nights Dream", love was also the main theme for the month of May it seems.
1. They attempted to flatter her by including her in the play in some way. It was an opportunity for her to show part of herself to the entire audience and by what the book talks about on page 129-130, she definitely took the opportunity. She could’ve gotten mad that they almost killed her, but instead she showed the audience that she was brave and she took it very light-heartedly.
ReplyDelete2. I think it makes it interesting because it shows just how much respect the actors received for these plays that everyone loved and enjoyed. Royalty would go see these plays, yet the actors didn’t receive any respect or were even referred to by name when they were paid. They were simply the character that they were playing at the time. I think it makes me understand A Midsummer Night’s Dream a little more because it’s showing the types of people that were actually in the real plays written by Shakespeare. They were lower class people who didn’t receive credit for the job they were doing. I think Shakespeare put them into the play so the audience could kind of see “behind-the-scenes” of a play and maybe realize that the actors they were currently watching were actual people with real lives.
1. She would be thrust in somewhat disjointedly. They figured by including her in the play in some fashion would be a way to show homage to the Queen. She would normally be put in as a strong role like returning from a successful hunt.
ReplyDelete2. The role of an actor/performer in those times is severely contradictory to what that embodies today. It is easy for us to inset our 21st century culture of actor/celebrities as we interpret plays from this era. This shows that these people were sacrificial in someways. They helped build this world of “entertainment” even though they were scorned, and poorly paid.