Puritan Antitheatricalism

This is Nigel Hawthorne as Malvolio in a 1996 film version of Twelfth Night directed by Trevor Nunn. As you can see from Malvolio's costume, Nunn puts the play in a Victorian setting. Scott's remark last week that by "Puritan" we often really mean "Victorian" made me realize why this setting works so well. (I like the movie - Ben Kingsley is the perfect Feste.)

For Wednesday you will read among other things a brief excerpt from Philip Stubbes' Anatomy of Abuses (1583). The book is in the form of a dialogue between Philoponus, a worldly traveler, and Spudeus, an uneducated yokel. They are talking about England (a foreign land to them) and its social customs. The critique is scathing and wide-ranging, from bear-baiting, women's fashion, gambling, drunkenness,  and "tennisse," to swearing, usury, covetousness, and maypoles. (Recall Earle's jab about maypoles in the character of the "shee-hypocrite.") You'll just read the section on stage plays - what is it that makes plays evil to Stubbes? Is it just a matter of resenting enjoyment?

If you are interested in the topic of antitheatricalism, I highly recommend The Antitheatrical Prejudice by Jonas Barish (Berkeley, 1981). The whole book is great - it goes from Plato to Ivor Winters - but there are two chapters on Puritanism. I've uploaded these to the "Recommending Readings" folder on e-learning.