scholarly journals Stage Tricks: Handling Props in Arden of Faversham

2013 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernice Mittertreiner Neal
Keyword(s):  
Death Sentence ◽  
Corpus Christi ◽  
Prayer Book ◽  
Medieval Theatre ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
English Stage ◽  
Stage Properties ◽  
Arden Of Faversham

In 1551 England, Alice Arden cuckolded and then murdered Thomas Arden of Faversham, a prosperous, if unscrupulous, merchant and landlord, in their own home. Alice Arden was tried and convicted of murder, sentenced to die, and burnt at the stake. In the 1570s Holinshed chronicled the crimes and sentencing related to Thomas Arden's murder, and some twenty years later an anonymous playwright dramatized the events in a domestic tragedy called Arden of Faversham. Performed on the Elizabethan, and newly secular English stage in the wake of the Reformation, Arden of Faversham employs what I call the Corpus Christi affect, a phenomenon from the outlawed medieval theatre, to play a trick on its staring and startled audience. My focus is the play's spectacle--a poisoned crucifix, a painting that kills at a glance, a prayer book, shorn of its leaves--spectacle that insistently points at and exploits anxieties that motivate the iconophobes and the iconoclasts. I work with Andrew Sofer's account of semiotic and phenomenological attitudes towards stage properties in my analysis of Arden's props and the characters that handle them. I argue that while Alice's blasphemy, rebellion, and felony appear to be contained and condemned by her death sentence, the play stages its own subversive act by asserting the corpse of her husband as potentially salvific--the very means by which Alice performs her spiritual redemption.

Latency and Topicality: Communication of Threats in Medieval Theatre Latenz und Aktualität: Bedrohungskommunikation im mittelalterlichen Schauspiel

2020 ◽  
Vol 149 (4) ◽  
pp. 479-497
Author(s):  
Klaus Ridder
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Medieval Theatre ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Production Techniques

The twelfth-century 'Ludus de Antichristo' already contains a number of the threatening scenarios (Ottoman Expansion, Heresy, Antichrist, etc.) that maintain a presence in the theatre up until the sixteenth century. This essay aims to investigate which scenarios of religious threat are dominant in the dramas of the later Middle Ages and Reformation, and what kinds of dramatic and production techniques are used in order to perform these scenarios on stage. Three levels of dramatic staging may be distinguished (Latency, Presence, Topicality), and these will be analysed here on the basis of three exemplary plays published before and after the Reformation (Hans Folz, 'Der Herzog von Burgund' / 'The Jewish Messiah'; Niklaus Manuel, 'Vom Papst und seiner Priesterschaft' / 'Of the Pope and his Priesthood'; Thomas Naogeorg, 'Pammachius' / 'Pammachius'). Bereits im 'Ludus de Antichristo' (12. Jh.) findet sich ein Großteil der Bedrohungsszenarien (Osmanische Expansion, Häresie, Antichrist etc.), die im Schauspiel bis ins 16. Jh. präsent bleiben. Der Aufsatz fragt danach, welche religiösen Bedrohungsszenarien im spätmittelalterlichen und reformatorischen Schauspiel dominant sind und auf welchen dramatischen Darstellungstechniken deren Wirkung in der Aufführung beruht. Drei Ebenen der theatralen Inszenierung von Bedrohung (Latenz, Präsenz, Aktualität) werden analytisch unterschieden und anhand von drei Schauspielen vor und nach der Reformation (Hans Folz, 'Der Herzog von Burgund'; Niklaus Manuel, 'Vom Papst und seiner Priesterschaft'; Thomas Naogeorg, 'Pammachius') exemplarisch beschrieben.

scholarly journals From England to Under African Skies: The Quest for an African Anglican Liturgical Voice

2017 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Carleton Houston ◽  
Andrew Kruger
Keyword(s):  
Southern Africa ◽  
Turning Point ◽  
Middle Ground ◽  
Anglican Church ◽  
Revision Process ◽  
Prayer Book ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
History Of ◽  
Consultative Process ◽  
The Church

The prayer book of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa is currently being revised. The slogan ‘Under Southern Skies - In An African voice’ is the rallying cry of this liturgical consultative process.  It captures one of the core purposes of the revision project, namely, to root Anglican liturgy in the context of Southern Africa.  But this is not a new impetus. The previous revision of the prayer book, 1989 Anglican Prayer Book, sought a similar objective and hoped for the continuing development of indigenous liturgy.  This hope has a long history. The Anglican church, formed in England in the midst of the Reformation, engaged significantly with the vernacular moment, crafting liturgy in English rather than Latin. The church also sought to hold together a diversity of theological voices in order to create a via media or middle road.  This paper explores the liturgical turning point of the Reformation and the later expansion of colonial and theological tensions that have shaped and been expressed through the history of the Anglican prayer book in Southern Africa.  The authors conclude that giving substance to indigenous voices and finding theological middle ground remains important to the revision process to this day.

Pensioners, Prisoners, and Pupils: Corpus Christi College’s Charity in Tudor Oxford

2019 ◽  
pp. 240-262
Author(s):  
Lucy M. Kaufman
Keyword(s):  
Protestant Reformation ◽  
Corpus Christi ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
Nicholas Udall ◽  
The Impact

This chapter examines the impact of early Reformation on Corpus Christi College. If one takes the posting of the Ninety-Five Theses in the traditional way as the starting-gun for the Protestant Reformation, then Corpus Christi is as old as the Reformation itself. Of course, ‘the Reformation‘ did not begin as early as 1517. It would be another ten years before the Reformation made any recorded impact in Corpus itself, although Luther’s ideas reached Oxford pretty soon. With the exception of the Nicholas Udall affair, the impact of the early Reformation on Corpus Christi is evident largely by its absence during the lifetime of the first president, John Claymond. After Claymond’s death, the college’s peace was briefly disturbed by a new brand of Reformation, by the ideas arising from Henry VIII’s Break with Rome.

Church, State, and Corpus: The Founder’s Years

2019 ◽  
pp. 40-58
Author(s):  
Paul Cavill
Keyword(s):  
Corpus Christi ◽  
The Reformation

This chapter examines Richard Fox’s establishment of a secular college in Oxford. Fox’s initial intention had been to establish a monastic college in Oxford which, without question, looks to have been a distinctly conservative choice. His wish was to benefit, in the main, the Benedictine monks of St. Swithun’s priory who served the cathedral church of Winchester and, as such, formed the community at the heart of the see that he served for the last twenty years of his life. However, he changed his mind and opted instead for a secular establishment. The chapter then considers the ramifications of his decision to establish a secular college and sets his plans for Corpus Christi College within the broader environment of collegiate foundation in the English Church in the decades that preceded the Reformation.

scholarly journals Patronage, Performativity, and Ideas of Corpus Christi

2019 ◽  
pp. 59-80
Author(s):  
Pamela M. King
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
Church And State ◽  
Corpus Christi ◽  
The Reformation ◽  
University Colleges ◽  
Royal Supremacy ◽  
The Way

This chapter details relations between Church and state in Richard Fox’s age. The break with Rome, the royal supremacy, and the dissolution of the monasteries irreversibly altered the way in which the early Tudor polity would be conceived. Already in the sixteenth century, accounts of this period were informed by the Reformation. Incidents such as Bishop Fox’s change of plan at Oxford—transforming a primarily monastic ‘Winchester College‘ into the secular Corpus Christi College—became overlaid with foreshadowed significance. Ultimately, Fox’s was the last great age of bishops founding university colleges, since the requisite mix of authority and wealth seldom coalesced so favourably thereafter and certainly could not during the assault on episcopal incomes later in the sixteenth century. Clerical dominance in Church and state made Corpus.

The 1559 Books of Common Prayer and the Elizabethan Reformation

2015 ◽  
Vol 67 (1) ◽  
pp. 94-121 ◽  
Author(s):  
CYNDIA SUSAN CLEGG
Keyword(s):  
Privy Council ◽  
Book Of Common Prayer ◽  
Corpus Christi ◽  
Prayer Book ◽  
Limited Edition ◽  
Common Prayer

The 1559 Book of Common Prayer printed by Richard Grafton has been dismissed by bibliographers, who have suggested that Grafton printed it as ‘agent for Jugge and Cawood’ (the Queen’s Printers) and ‘improperly put his name in the imprint’. Relying on evidence from a 1559 Grafton prayer book in the collection of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, which contains the signatures of members of Elizabeth i’s Privy Council that can be dated prior to the opening of Elizabeth’s Reformation Parliament, this article argues not only that Grafton’s Book of Common Prayer was legitimate (indeed ‘authorised’), but also that it may have been printed in a limited edition, perhaps to be circulated in association with the Bill for Uniformity.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document