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The Disguised Ruler in Shakespeare and his Contemporaries book cover

1st Edition

The Disguised Ruler in Shakespeare and his Contemporaries

By Kevin A. Quarmby Copyright 2012
280 Pages
by Routledge

280 Pages
by Routledge

280 Pages
by Routledge
Also available as eBook on:
In the early seventeenth century, the London stage often portrayed a ruler covertly spying on his subjects. Traditionally deemed 'Jacobean disguised ruler plays', these works include Shakespeare's Measure for Measure, Marston's The Malcontent and The Fawn, Middleton's The Phoenix, and Sharpham's The Fleer. Commonly dated to the arrival of James I, these plays are typically viewed as synchronic... Read more
Contents: Preface; Introduction: the disguised ruler in Shakespeare and his contemporaries; The disguised ruler on the Elizabethan stage; The Malcontent: a play in two forms; Measure for Measure: conventionality in disguise; The Phoenix and The Fawn: law, morality and the medievalism of disguise; Disguised ruler afterlives: the spectre of terrorism; Afterword: the sting in The Wasp's tail; Bibliography; Index.

Biography

Kevin A. Quarmby is Assistant Professor of English at The College of St. Scholastica, Duluth, Minnesota. His prior professional acting career informs his Shakespeare research.

Shortlisted for the Shakespeare's Globe Book Award 2014 'This excellent book fills a gap in the fields of English literature and history, and destabilizes some idée fixes of the Shakespeare field - for instance, the idea, often promulgated, that the Friar in Measure for Measure is a reflection of James I. Written with Quarmby's typical charm and clarity, this important book is so cogent and accessible that scholars from undergraduates to professors will profit from it.' Tiffany Stern, Professor of Early Modern Drama, University College, Oxford, UK

 'Kevin A. Quarmby’s The Disguised Ruler in Shakespeare and His Contemporaries offers a convincing rejoinder to a new historicist orthodoxy: that the beginning of James I’s reign witnessed the emergence and brief flowering of a distinctly Jacobean subgenre, the disguised ruler play.' Studies in English Literature 1500-1900 ’...Quarmby’s monograph is an important contribution to theatre performance criticism which will hopefully lead to a reappreciation of the disguised ruler motif among Renaissance scholars.’ Shakespeare Jahrbuch

’...a valuable re-examination of familiar assumptions about the disguised ruler motif.’ Around the Globe

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