Language and stage in Medieval and Renaissance England

Bibliographic Information

Language and stage in Medieval and Renaissance England

Janette Dillon

Cambridge University Press, 1998

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Note

Includes bibliographical references (p. 246-263) and index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

This study explores the use of other languages, especially Latin, in medieval and Renaissance English drama. Until the medieval period Latin was regarded as the sacramental language of authority, but in the newly politicized linguistic arena of the late fourteenth century it became a symbol of the potential enemy from Rome. In this book Janette Dillon examines why, during the period 1400 to 1600, other languages increasingly invade English plays, and how their significance is illuminated by developments in Church and state, in particular the advancing Reformation and expanding English nationalism. In marked contrast to other related studies, Dillon focuses on drama as performance and employs a wide range of works, from the mystery cycles to The Spanish Tragedy, and finally Shakespeare.

Table of Contents

  • Preface
  • Conventions and abbreviations
  • 1. Verbum Dei and the rise of English
  • 2. Staging truth
  • 3. The voice of God
  • 4. The controlling state
  • 5. The value of learning
  • 6. Shaping a rhetoric
  • 7. English and alien
  • 8. Rebels and outcasts
  • 9. Conclusion
  • Notes
  • Bibliography
  • Index.

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