Early Modern Drama and the Bible Contexts and Readings, 1570-1625 [Hardcover]

Early modern drama is steeped in biblical language, imagery and stories. This collection examines the pervasive presence of scripture on the early modern stage. Exploring plays by writers such as Shakespeare, Marlowe, Middleton, and Webster, the contributors show?how theatre offers a site of public and communal engagement with the Bible.Acknowledgements List of Contributors Introduction: Situating the Bible in Early Modern Drama; A.Streete PART I: REPRESENTING THE BIBLE IN EARLY MODERN DRAMA: MATERIAL AND VERBAL CONTEXTS Enter The Book: Reading the Bible on the Early Modern Stage; M.Davies Measuring up to Nebuchadnezzar: Biblical Presences in Shakespeare's Tragicomedies; H.Wilcox Fatal Visions: The Image as Actor in Early Modern Tragedy; P.Canning PART II: POLITICAL THEOLOGY, THE BIBLE AND DRAMA Political Theology in George Buchanan's Baptistes ; D.Cavanagh The Ethics of Pardoning in Shakespeare's Measure for Measure ; P.Cefalu Punishing Perjury in Love's Labour's Lost ; J.Hudson PART III: BIBLICAL READINGS ON STAGE: PULPIT, HOUSEHOLD AND POLITICAL CONTROVERSY 'They repented at the preachyng of Ionas: and beholde, a greater then Ionas is here': A Looking Glass for London and England , Hosea and the Destruction of Jerusalem; B.Groves Marital Infidelity and Christian Self-Sacrifice in Thomas Heywood's How a Good Man May Choose a Good Wife from?a Bad ; E.McManus Reading the White Devil in Thomas Adams and John Webster; E.Rhatigan Situating Political and Biblical Authority in Massinger and Field's The Fatal Dowry ; A.Streete Afterword; H.Hamlin Bibliography Index

This confident and seductive collection of essays is alive with a sense of the transformative power of performance. By inviting us to think about the Bible as stage property, philosophical concept, and as linguistic intervention, it establishes a bold new scholarly landscape for understanding early modern material, spiritual, and theatrical cultures. Julie Sanders, University of Nottingham, UK