Shakespeare

Front 1

topos/topoi

Back 1

can be geographic or mental place, also means topic, problem, issue
In a Midsummer Night's Dream, the topoi involved the court, the city, and the woods, each denoting a different sort of feel, mental place. The woods were a place of wandering, the court a place of social order

Front 2

Non-illusionistic theatre

Back 2

No scenery, lots of props, lavish costumes--often just gorgeous pieces of clothing, anachronistic, mixing and matching of time periods was characteristic. Language was how people knew where they were. Relies on imagination of audience

Front 3

Contract of understanding

Back 3

actors/playwright --> audience
a double consciousness: audience awareness that they are outside of play, as audience, but involved, suspending disbelief

Front 4

paternity, patrimony, patriarchy

Back 4

1. fatherhood
2. wealth tied to father's line, path of transmission for wealth. About land, title.
3. most embracing of these terms, whole system by which males dominate society

Front 5

posterity

Back 5

those that come after us

Front 6

First Folio

Back 6

1623, divided the plays into comedies, histories, tragedies. After Shakespeare's death, so text can be based on corruption, acor's memories scraps of paper
be careful not to attribute too much to shakespeare

Front 7

synecdoche

Back 7

A figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole (as hand for sailor), the whole for a part (as the law for police officer), the specific for the general (as cutthroat for assassin), the general for the specific (as thief for pickpocket), or the material for the thing made from it (as steel for sword).

Front 8

metonymy

Back 8

a figure of speech that consists of the use of the name of one object or concept for that of another to which it is related, or of which it is a part, as “scepter” for “sovereignty,” or “the bottle” for “strong drink,” or “count heads (or noses)” for “count people.”

Front 9

stichomythia

Back 9

dramatic dialogue, as in a Greek play, characterized by brief exchanges between two characters, each of whom usually speaks in one line of verse during a scene of intense emotion or strong argumentation.
Hermia and Lysander

Front 10

Merchant of Venice year

Back 10

1596-1597

Front 11

will

Back 11

1. legal document
2. power of intent
father controls daughter's marriage after death
fantasy of being able to live on in one's own heirs

Front 12

richard iii year

Back 12

1592

Front 13

wars of roses

Back 13

1455-1485. two branches of royal families contending for throne. Red-Lancaster White-York
red and white-Tudor
End of Richard III battle of Bosworth is end of this

Front 14

primogeniture

Back 14

1. the state or fact of being the firstborn of children of the same parents.
2. Law. the system of inheritance or succession by the firstborn, specifically the eldest son.
In Richard III, lines of inheritance partly improvised, primogeniture much less clear cut

Front 15

two kings

Back 15

body natural, body politic

Front 16

Sir Thomas More's biography

Back 16

made Richard into a monster. very successful but not entirely clear it was true. chronicles not objective

Front 17

causality

Back 17

history is written from perspective that all happens because of will of god
then happenstance
power of the curse--a leitmotif in the problem of causality. words and their inherent power to damn
richard--evil because of nature?
anne 1.2.20--wishing onto Richard exactly what he is
redundancy in nature--someone evil will look evil
curses, oaths, prophecy
physical stampvs. moral character

Front 18

masque

Back 18

courtly, more private, woman allowed to participate, had sets

Front 19

seed theory

Back 19

male seed is better,
women as containers, men are active agens
generation--reappropriation of this power, masculine anxiety

Front 20

aside

Back 20

used mostly by richard and margaret--appears to be real, direct richard, insight into his character

Front 21

100 years war

Back 21

100 years wars with France 1337-1453. wars about who to rule england, crown, and also about what it was that england comprised.
1066 Norman Conquest
century and a half--oppressed, abandoned soldiers, unpaid, no pensions, benefits
100 years war--had to do with england's own self-definition. "i scarcely know myself"--what language is supposed to come out of my mouth. struggles among factions over what constituted the whole.

Front 22

king's two bodies

Back 22

King's "two bodies" annointed by god, kind embodied nation, and god's will. body perfect and unblemished, whole in its powers, not liable to imperfection, sickness or death. immortal body. "We" The body that died was the king's human body--the body mystical lives on. "The king is dead long life the king" tension between two bodies is difficult when king is foolish/ignores matters of state (Richard II), young, incompetent to speak (Henry VI in infancy)
We are model of constancy because we were loyal to the annointed king and still are and would be if Richard were
Of course they noticed that military power made the difference, etc. but every king that came to power by force claimed to have come to power for other reasons.
constancy