Shakespeare's Noise"You common cry of curs! whose breath I hate / As reek o'th'rotten fens, whose loves I prize / As the dead carcasses of unburied men / That do corrupt my air: I banish you!" (from Coriolanus) Kenneth Gross explores Shakespeare's deep fascination with dangerous and disorderly forms of speaking—especially rumor, slander, insult, vituperation, and curse—and through them offers a vision of the work of words in his plays. Coriolanus's taunts or Lear's curses force us to think not just about how Shakespeare's characters speak, but also about how they hear, overhear, and mishear what is spoken, how rumor becomes tragic knowledge for Hamlet, or opens Othello to fantastic jealousies. Gross also shows how Shakespeare's preoccupation with "noisy" speech echoed and transformed a broader cultural obsession with the perils of rumor, slander, and libel in Renaissance England. Elegantly written and passionately argued, Shakespeare's Noise will challenge and delight anyone who loves his plays, from scholars to general readers, actors, and directors. |
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Page 1
... speaking : slander , defamation , insult , vituperation , malediction , and curse . Rumor and gossip play a part as well . Such forms of speech are among the playwright's deepest preoccupations . His endless supply of mocks and curses ...
... speaking : slander , defamation , insult , vituperation , malediction , and curse . Rumor and gossip play a part as well . Such forms of speech are among the playwright's deepest preoccupations . His endless supply of mocks and curses ...
Page 2
... speaking and hearing in the world , a world drawn together by fragile , often corrosive networks of murmuring , news , and tale - telling , full of interruption , derangement , nonsense , and static . Through these suspect media the ...
... speaking and hearing in the world , a world drawn together by fragile , often corrosive networks of murmuring , news , and tale - telling , full of interruption , derangement , nonsense , and static . Through these suspect media the ...
Page 3
... speaking . King Lear in particular suggests that curse shares with slander the capacity to spread its violence ... speak- ing and hearing allows me a way into those motives which most deeply shape the plays . In Shakespeare , rumor ...
... speaking . King Lear in particular suggests that curse shares with slander the capacity to spread its violence ... speak- ing and hearing allows me a way into those motives which most deeply shape the plays . In Shakespeare , rumor ...
Page 4
... speaking are , they can shape an order , even take on a quasi- ritual form . ( One might point here to the elaborately formalized contests of verbal aggression we find in many cultures , from the savage boasting matches of heroes in the ...
... speaking are , they can shape an order , even take on a quasi- ritual form . ( One might point here to the elaborately formalized contests of verbal aggression we find in many cultures , from the savage boasting matches of heroes in the ...
Page 5
... speak more immediately about the unsettling presence of the actor in the theater , living at once in real space and time , and yet within " a dream of passion . " I consider what it feels like to be a " guilty creature sitting at a play ...
... speak more immediately about the unsettling presence of the actor in the theater , living at once in real space and time , and yet within " a dream of passion . " I consider what it feels like to be a " guilty creature sitting at a play ...
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Common terms and phrases
A. C. Bradley abuse accusation actor Angelo Angus Fletcher audience Aufidius become blessing calls calumny Cambridge character Claudio Cordelia Coriolanus Coriolanus's curse dangerous dead death defamation Desdemona desire disguise drama dream Duke Duke's echo enemies face Faerie Queene false fame fantasy fear feel gestures ghost Hamlet hear hidden human Iago Iago's imagine Isabella Julien Gracq justice Kenneth Burke kind King Lear knowledge lago language Lear's listen London Lucio magical mask means Measure for Measure mouth noise once onstage Othello Oxford play play's Plutarch poison rage Renaissance revenge rumor scandal scene secret sense Shakespeare's shame shows silence slander space speak speakers speech stage storm story strange suggests theater thee thing thou tion tongues Tragedy trans truth turn uncanny University Press utterances violence voice vols Volscian William Empson witch words wounds York