IMC 2017: Sessions
Session 1334: No Laughing Matter: Comedy and Laughter in Early English Drama
Wednesday 5 July 2017, 16.30-18.00
Sponsor: | Medieval English Theatre, Lancaster University |
---|---|
Organiser: | Charlotte Steenbrugge, School of English, University of Sheffield |
Moderator/Chair: | Clare Wright, School of English, University of Kent |
Paper 1334-a | The Humour of the Slaughter of the Innocents Plays (Language: English) Index terms: Language and Literature - Middle English, Performance Arts - Drama |
Paper 1334-b | 'Complaining about the We[a]ther': John Heywood, Thomas More, and the Fall of Wolsey (Language: English) Index terms: Performance Arts - Drama, Politics and Diplomacy |
Paper 1334-c | 'With myrth and gam, / To the lawde of this lam': Shepherds, Chandlers, and the Agnus Dei in York and Towneley (Language: English) Index terms: Language and Literature - Middle English, Performance Arts - Drama |
Abstract | This session will assess the multifaceted uses of comedy on the early English stage. Paper -a will build a more complex perspective on the conjunction of the humorous and the religious in the Slaughter of the Innocents scenes. Paper -b will suggest how the potential for comedy hovered over allusions to the fall of Wolsey in both official government statements and court drama. Finally, Paper -c will re-consider the humour of the York and Towneley ‘Shepherds’ plays against the properties of a little-studied but apparently ubiquitous amuletic object, the Agnus Dei. |