7203X (3158) Early Modern Comedy and its Classical Models

Tanya Pollard – Spring 2013

4109 Boylan

Thursday 4:30-6:10

e-mail: Tpollard@brooklyn.cuny.edu

website: http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/tpollard

Office: 3108 Boylan

phone: 718-951-5000 x6216

hours: Thurs 3:30-4:30, and by appointment

 

Long condemned as a second-class literary genre, both aesthetically and morally inferior to tragedy, comedy has consistently annoyed its critics by proving strikingly popular with audiences.  As early modern playwrights experimented with the genreÕs possibilities, and explored strategies for legitimating its status without sacrificing its marketable pleasures, they turned to the authority and cultural prestige of classical models.  This course will explore the question of what made comedy so appealing to audiences in both the classical and early modern periods.  We will consider comedyÕs relationship to tragedy, tragicomedy, satire, and parody, alongside topics such as disguise, deceit, confusion, recognition, reversal, master-servant relations, money, marriage, appetite, and pleasure. Readings will include AristophanesÕ Plutus, PlautusÕs Menaechmi and Amphitryo, TerenceÕs The Eunuch, ShakespeareÕs Comedy of Errors and Twelfth Night, JonsonÕs Volpone and The Alchemist, and MiddletonÕs A Trick to Catch the Old One.  Regular presentations and short papers will focus on language, close reading, and staging; a final paper will develop research, analytical, and writing skills.

 

 

Date

Reading

group

1

1-31

Introduction

2

2-7

Aristophanes, Plutus (388 BCE)

1-1

3

2-14

Plautus, Menaechmi (ca. 205-184 BCE)

2-1

4

2-21

Plautus, Amphitryo (ca. 205-184 BCE)

3-1

5

2-28

Terence, The Eunuch (161 BCE)

4-1

6

3-7

Shakespeare, Comedy of Errors (ca. 1594), 1-3

1-2

7

3-14

Comedy of Errors, 4-5; Shakespeare, Twelfth Night (ca. 1600), 1-2

2-2

8

3-21

Twelfth Night, 4-5

3-2

9

3-28

No class, Easter break

 

10

4-4

Ben Jonson, Volpone (ca. 1605), 1-3

4-2

11

4-11

Volpone, 4-5; Middleton, A Trick to Catch the Old One (1607), 1-2

1-3

12

4-18

A Trick to Catch the Old One, 3-5

2-3

13

4-25

Ben Jonson, The Alchemist (ca 1610), 1-2

3-3

14

5-2

Alchemist, 3-5; presentations on research paper

4-3

15

5-9

presentations on research paper

 


16

5-16

peer-editing workshop; draft of research paper due

17

5-23

final research paper due

Course Requirements and Expectations:

Attendance

Because your presentations and contributions to class discussion are a central part of your coursework, attendance is crucial.  If you miss more than two classes, your overall grade will drop; at four absences, you may fail the class. Arriving late will count as a partial absence.

Texts

I have ordered copies of the plays at Shakespeare & Co (note that Plutus is titled Wealth, in a collection titled Birds and Other Plays, and there are two separate Plautus volumes, each titled Four Plays), but you are welcome to use other editions if you prefer.  If purchasing the books is a problem, there are also texts in the library.  Because discussions will focus on close readings of passages, it is important that everyone has a copy of the play in class.  If you forget your copy, stop by the library and check one out on the way to class.  Recommended secondary readings will be available on Blackboard.

Participation

Learning is a collaborative process, which works best when each of you engages fully with the texts and with each other.  To this end, I will expect you to participate actively in class discussions, and you will be required to make frequent presentations.  In order to build a classroom atmosphere of courtesy and concentration, please avoid behavior that is disrespectful and interferes with othersÕ learning, including rudeness, talking while others are speaking, and ringing from cell-phones, pagers, watches, etc.

Writing

Over the course of the semester you will write three short (2 page) papers accompanying in-class presentations, as well as one longer (12-15 pages) research paper.  All written work should have a central claim that is well argued, clearly written, and directly supported by close readings of textual passages; the research paper will also incorporate, and respond to, at least three secondary sources.  All papers should be typed, double-spaced, in a 12-point font, with one-inch margins on all sides.  Punctuality matters: written work is due at the start of class, and lateness will result in lowering of the grade.  Any use of othersÕ ideas must be fully acknowledged in footnotes; speak to me if you are unsure about what this means.  Plagiarism is a serious offense, and will result in failing the class and being reported to the DeanÕs Office.

Coursework and grading:

Presentations and participation

3 short papers (10% each)

Research proposal

Research paper draft

Final research paper

 

30%

30%

10%

10%

20%

 


Selected recommended secondary readings (available on Blackboard, except for full books)

 

Aristophanes:

 

Kenneth Dover, ÒWealth,Ó in Aristophanic Comedy (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972), 202-209.

 

Douglas MacDowell, ÒWealth,Ó in Aristophanes and Athens (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995), 324-249.

 

James F. McGlew, ÒAfter Irony: AristophanesÕ Wealth and its Modern Interpreters

American Journal of Philology 118:1 (1997), 35-53.

 

Michael Silk, ÒPrologueÓ and part of ÒThree Openings,Ó in Aristophanes and the Definition of Comedy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), 1-29.

 

Alan Sommerstein, ÒAristophanes and Demon Poverty,Ó Classical Quarterly 34 (1984), 314-33.

 

Plautus:

 

Robin P. Bond, ÒPlautusÕ Amphitryo as Tragi-comedy,Ó Greece and Rome 46:2 (1999), 203-219.

 

Pamela R. Bleisch, ÒPlautine Travesties of Gender and Genre: Transvestism and Tragicomedy in Amphitruo,Ó Didaskalia 4.1 (1997) http://www.didaskalia.net/issues/vol4no1/bleisch.html

 

Kathleen McCarthy, ÒThe Ties that Bind: Menaechmi,Ó in Slaves, Masters, and the Art of Authority in Plautine Comedy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000), 34-76.

 

Timothy Moore, ÒTragicomedy as a Running Joke: PlautusÕ Amphitruo in Performance,Ó Didaskalia  suppl. 1 (1995)

http://www.didaskalia.net/issues/supplement1/moore.html

 

Erich Segal, ÒThe Menaechmi: Roman Comedy of Errors,Ó Yale Classical Studies 21 (1969), 77-93.

 

Niall Slater, ÒAmphitryo, Bacchae, and Metatheatre,Ó in Lexis 5-6 (1990), 101-126.

 

Terence:

 

Cynthia S. Dessen, ÒThe Figure of the Eunuch in TerenceÕs EunuchusHelios 22:2 (1995), 123-139.

 

Sharon L. James,  ÒFrom boys to men: Rape and Developing Masculinity in Terence's Hecyra and EunuchusHelios 1998 25 (1), 31-47.

 

David Konstan, ÒLove in TerenceÕs Eunuch: The origins of erotic subjectivity,Ó American Journal of Philology 107 (1986), 369-393.

 

Renaissance Reception:

 

Richard F.  Hardin, ÒMenaechmi and the Renaissance of Comedy,Ó Comparative Drama

37:3,4, (2003-04), 255-274.

 

Richard F. Hardin, ÒEncountering Plautus in the Renaissance: A Humanist Debate on ComedyRenaissance Quarterly 60:3 (2007), 789-818.

 

Robert S. Miola, Shakespeare and Classical Comedy: The Influence of Plautus and Terence (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994).

 

Wolfgang Riehle, Shakespeare, Plautus, and the Humanist Tradition (Cambridge: Boydell and Brewer, 1990).

Matthew Steggle, ÒAristophanes in Early Modern England,Ó in Aristophanes in performance, 421 BC-AD 2007: Peace, Birds and Frogs, ed. Edith Hall and Amanda Wrigley (MHRA, 2007), 52-65.

 

Shakespeare:

 

Catherine Belsey, ÒTwelfth Night and the riddle of Gender,Ó in Why Shakespeare? (Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan, 2007), 129-148.

 

Joseph Candido, ÒDining Out in Ephesus: Food in The Comedy of ErrorsSEL: Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 30:2 (1990), 217-41.

 

Keir Elam, ÒThe Fertile Eunuch: Twelfth Night, Early Modern Intercourse, and the Fruits of Castration,Ó Shakespeare Quarterly 47:1 (1996), 1-36.

 

Robert S. Miola, ÒNew Comedic Errors: The Comedy of Errors and Twelfth Night,Ó in Shakespeare and Classical Comedy: The Influence of Plautus and Terence (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994), 19-61.

 

Laurie Maguire, ÒThe Girls from Ephesus,Ó in The Comedy of Errors: Critical Essays, ed. Robert S. Miola (New York: Routledge, 1997), 355-91.

 

Paul Mueschke and Jeannette Fleisher, ÒJonsonian Elements in the Comic Underplot of Twelfth NightPMLA 48:4 (1933), 722-740.

 

Wolfgang Riehle, ÒCharacterization in Plautus and in The Comedy of Errors,Ó in Shakespeare, Plautus, and the Humanist Tradition (Cambridge: Boydell and Brewer, 1990), 44-76.

 

Karen Robertson, ÒA Revenging Feminine Hand in Twelfth NightReading and Writing in Shakespeare, ed. David M. Bergeron (Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1996), 116-130.

 

Leo Salinger, ÒThe Design of Twelfth NightShakespeare Quarterly 9:2 (1958), 117-139.

 

Marguerite Tassi, ÒÔSportful Malice,Õ or What Maria Wills: Revenge Comedy in Twelfth Night,Ó Upstart Crow 27 (2007), 32-50.

 

Jonson:

 

Joachim Frenk, ÒJacobean City Comedies: Ben JonsonÕs The Alchemist and Thomas MiddletonÕs A Chaste Maid in Cheapside,Ó in A History of British Drama, ed. Sibylle Baumbach, Birgit Neumann, and Ansgar NŸnning (Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier, 2011), 95-111.

 

Alexandra Gillespie, ÒBen JonsonÕs The Alchemist,Ó in British Writers: Classics, Volume I, ed. Jay Parini (New York: Scribner's, 2003), 1-22.

 

Ian Donaldson, ÒVolpone and the Ends of Comedy,Ó Sydney Studies 18 (1992), 48-71.

 

Geraldo U Sousa, ÒBoundaries of Genre in Ben JonsonÕs Volpone and The AlchemistEssays in Theatre 4:2 (1986), 134-146.

 

Richard Dutton, ÒVolpone and Beast Fable: Early Modern Analogic Reading,Ó in Huntington Library Quarterly 67 (2004), 347-70.

 

Robert N. Watson, ÒThe Alchemist and Jonson's Conversion of Comedy,Ó in Renaissance Genres, ed. Barbara K. Lewalski (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1986), 332-367.

 

Middleton:

 

Richard F. Hardin, ÒMiddleton, Plautus, and the Ethics of Comedy,Ó in The Oxford Handbook to Thomas Middleton (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011), 296-311.

 

Eric Leonidas, ÒThe School of the World: Trading on Wit in Middleton's Trick to Catch the Old OneEarly Modern Literary Studies 12:3 (2007) http://extra.shu.ac.uk/emls/12-3/leontri2.htm

 

David B. Mount, ÒThe Ô(Un)Reclaymed FormeÕ of MiddletonÕs A Trick to Catch the Old OneStudies in English Literature 31:2 (1991), 259-72.

 

Scott Cutler Shershow, ÒThe Pit of Wit: Subplot and Unity in MiddletonÕs A Trick to Catch the Old OneStudies in Philology 88 (1991), 363-81.