“Superfluous Men” : the graveyard politics of The Duchess of Malfi
This essay reads Webster’s tragedy in the context of the untimely death of King James’s eldest son, Henry, Prince of Wales, and of his father’s failure to honour the Protestant hero with a suitable memorial. Centring its argument on the Echo scene (V.iii), it seeks to show how the play’s recurrent g...
Enregistré dans:
| Dans: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/asf, |
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| Format: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| Langue: | Anglais |
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Arrêt sur scène / Scene Focus
2023
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| Accès en ligne: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| Résumé: | This essay reads Webster’s tragedy in the context of the untimely death of King James’s eldest son, Henry, Prince of Wales, and of his father’s failure to honour the Protestant hero with a suitable memorial. Centring its argument on the Echo scene (V.iii), it seeks to show how the play’s recurrent graveyard imagery contributes to its dissident politics. Setting the bourgeois virtues imagined as “integrity of life” against the pretensions of inherited rank, this “citizen tragedy” redefines the idea of “greatness”, thereby becoming Webster’s most significant monument to the values for which Prince Henry had, in the minds of his admirers, come to stand. |
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