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 3
... turns out to be peculiarly deaf to a group of more extreme , psychologically demanding voices that are released in the course of the play . Coriolanus presents us ... turn out to be ways of creating a world , as well as ways Introduction 3.
... turns out to be peculiarly deaf to a group of more extreme , psychologically demanding voices that are released in the course of the play . Coriolanus presents us ... turn out to be ways of creating a world , as well as ways Introduction 3.
Page 5
... turns attentive , foolish , hostile , vulnerable , and dull not to mention " ill - wresting . " If such freedom of speech and freedom of hearing in the theater were scarcely unmediated , especially given the com- plex pressures of ...
... turns attentive , foolish , hostile , vulnerable , and dull not to mention " ill - wresting . " If such freedom of speech and freedom of hearing in the theater were scarcely unmediated , especially given the com- plex pressures of ...
Page 7
... turn on the questions of rumor , defamation , vituperation , and curse . The plays do not necessarily form a de- velopmental sequence within Shakespeare's canon . But they suggest a grouping of works that will be , I hope , Introduction 7.
... turn on the questions of rumor , defamation , vituperation , and curse . The plays do not necessarily form a de- velopmental sequence within Shakespeare's canon . But they suggest a grouping of works that will be , I hope , Introduction 7.
Page 8
... turn . Reports about other arrivals and departures , about ancient kidnappings and present wars , keep these worlds in motion as well . ( Think of the fate of that crucial vial of " medicine " in the play — a sleep drug mis- taken for ...
... turn . Reports about other arrivals and departures , about ancient kidnappings and present wars , keep these worlds in motion as well . ( Think of the fate of that crucial vial of " medicine " in the play — a sleep drug mis- taken for ...
Page 10
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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