Women on Stage in Stuart DramaCambridge University Press, 2005 - 294 pages Women on Stage in Stuart Drama provides a 'prehistory' of the actress, filling an important gap in established accounts of how women came to perform in the Restoration theatre. Sophie Tomlinson uncovers and analyzes a revolution in theatrical discourse in response to the cultural innovations of two Stuart queens consort, Anna of Denmark and the French Henrietta Maria. Their appearances on stage in masques and pastoral drama engendered a new poetics of female performance, which registered acting as a powerful means of self-determination for women. The pressure of cultural change is inscribed in a plethora of dramatic texts that explore the imaginative possibilities inspired by female acting. These include plays by the key royalist women writers Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle, and Katherine Philips. The material explored by Tomlinson illustrates a fresh vision of theatrical femininity and encompasses an unusually sympathetic interest in questions of female liberty and selfhood. |
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action actors actress Anna of Denmark audience Beauty Bellessa Ben Jonson Bianca Bonavent Broken Heart Calantha Cambridge University Press Carol Caroline Cartwright's chastity Circe Circe's Cleopatra Coleorton comedy Comus court masque culture Cupid Cupid's Banishment CWKP dance Daniel's death discourse dramatists Duchess Duchess of Malfi Early Modern Echo Elizabeth England English Eumela Fairfield female performance feminine Ford's Gender Henrietta Maria heroic husband Hyde Park Inigo Jones Ithocles Jacobean James Shirley John Ford Jonson Katherine Philips Lady Frances Lady-Errant Lady's line in parentheses literary London Love's Sacrifice madness male Margaret Cavendish marriage masculine masquers McManus Messallina Milton Mistress Montagu's Moramante nymphs Orgel Orgilus Oxford Paradise pastoral Penthea's Philips's play play's Poems political Pompey Queen Renaissance Drama representation Revels role Rosaura's royal scene sexual Shakespeare's Shepherds shift Shirley Shirley's song speech stage Stephen Orgel Stuart Tempe Restored theatre theatrical Tragedy tragicomedy William woman women writing
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Page 3 - I have heard of your paintings too, well enough ; God hath given you one face, and you make yourselves another...
Page 6 - See here the reason of that which I touched before, — that women have no voice in Parliament. They make no laws, they consent to none, they abrogate none. All of them are understood either married or to be married, and their desires are to their husbands. I know no remedy, that some women can shift it well enough.
Page 13 - Cage, a comedy, which wanteth, I must confess, much of that ornament, which the stage and action lent it, for it comprehending also another play or interlude, personated by ladies, * I must refer to your imagination, the music, the songs, the dancing, and other varieties, which I know would have pleas'd you infinitely in the presentment.