ENGL2060 Lecture 5: Week 5 Lecture
ENGL2060 – Week 5 Lecture
Epicene or The Silent Woman
Ben Johnson:
• 1572-1637
• Poor boy like Marlow (step-father bricklayer)
• Turns to being a soldier – 1594 acting and then to playwriting
• Known for being disruptive and unruly – kills a man
• Converts to Catholicism (illegal at the time)
• Lives into reign of James I
• Spends time at court – acts out in kind of modern-day musical
• 1616 – published own works (Works) – poetry in Latin and English
• Bid to be regarded as a serious author
Genre:
• Does not end with marriage and feast – resists the marriage plot
• Denys marriage as the solution of desire – economic to emotional
• Much more realistic – money key of all points in the play
• Money, then sex – love is nowhere to be found
• Love and courtship is a façade for self-interests
• Satire but not in pastoral form – city comedy (London)
• People how make their money are lower-class than people that inherit their money –
working hard for their living is not a good thing – should just be able to devote to the
liberal arts
• Gentleman and lady – class meaning (don’t have to work for living)
• Deeply cynical approach to life – does not act within gentlemanly codes
Theatre:
• Written for a children’s company – (North Bank)
• Black Friars – more expensive
• The Children of the Chapel (Elizabeth’s company) – Shakespeare take it over
• White Friars – not as much info (private and closed seating than the Globe, well of
audience
• Children’s Company’s taking over business – eventually went out of fashion
• Children acted all the parts
• “Liberties” (South Bank – Globe and Rose)
Engagement with issues of crossdressing/ gender:
• Crisis points for how manhood is viewed
• Money created power and subjectivity
