Interruptions in Early Modern English Drama

• Published in: Early modern literary studies Vol. 23; no. 1; p. 1
• Main Author: Lovascio, Domenico
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Sheffield Matthew Steggle, Editor, EMLS 01.01.2023
• Subjects: Audiences; Cross-dressers; Dramatists; Dramaturges; Dramaturgy; Early Modern English; English literature; Interruptions; Jonson, Ben (1573-1637); Literary characters; Males; Shakespeare, William (1564-1616); Songs; Women
• ISSN: 1201-2459

Early modern plays are no exception to this pattern, but to my knowledge there exists no study attempting a sustained investigation of the significance of interruptions as a form within late-sixteenth- and early-seventeenth-century English drama. [...]I will limit myself to presenting readers with a few pointers and highlights of the volume that I hope will manage to make the importance of this study emerge as forcefully as possible. [...]this latter solution, while probably less confusing for readers, detracts from the power of the silent presence of the ghost on stage before Macbeth acknowledges its presence, as the ghost's early entrance should be seen as 'an action interruption for Macbeth, not for the audience' (p. 107). [...]Wagoner considers how Fletcher uses offstage music to interrupt onstage male action in The Woman 's Prize, or The Tamer Tamed, in which a song sung by women offstage interrupts a conversation between male characters, with 'the men los [ing] their power of conversation in light of the song coming from the women's chambers' (p. 113).