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Each Man Was His Name And The Role His Name Implied

January 8, 2008 David Hurley 0

I have nearly finished C. L. Barber‘s, Shakespeare’s Festive Comedy. I came across a remarkable passage today, on the 210th page, which refers to the way in which the Elizabethans thought about the relation between a man and the name of the role he performed in the “divinely ordained pageant” [Read more…]

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Shakespeare’s Comic And Tragic “Amen Amen”

January 4, 2008 David Hurley 0

In the brief sixth scene of the second act of Romeo and Juliet, while Romeo and Friar Laurence await the arrival of Juliet, Friar Laurence offers offers up this orison, expressive of a certain anxiety about the clandestine nature of the marriage ceremony: “So smile the heavens upon this holy [Read more…]