International Journal of Literature and Arts

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Dragons on the Jacobean Stage

Received: 27 August 2014    Accepted: 11 September 2014    Published: 20 September 2014
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Abstract

This paper investigates a mixture of plays both Elizabethan (Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus (1594) and Greene’s Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay (1588-92)), and Jacobean (Barne’s The Devil’s Charter (1607) and Rowley’s The Birth of Merlin (1622)). These plays stage supernatural entities such as male witches, magicians and dragons. What binds all these plays together is having dragon(s) controlled by a magician. It is important to investigate the stage directions of the dragons in making their exits and entrances, what role they have in the plays, and how they affect the character of the drama. This study examines some sorcerer plays with special concentration on the character of the sorcerers, looking at the kinds of rituals and magic they make. Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus, Greene’s Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay, Barnes’s Alexander VI, and Rowley’s Merlin are male magicians and, each has a different role, being assisted by spirits or devils. I will investigate their role in each play and how they relate to witchcraft.

DOI 10.11648/j.ijla.20140205.15
Published in International Journal of Literature and Arts (Volume 2, Issue 5, September 2014)
Page(s) 173-186
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus, Greene’s Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay, Barnabe Barne’s The Devil’s Charter, Rowley’s The Birth of Merlin

References
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[2] The Devil’s Charter: A tragedy Containing the Life and Death of Pope Alexander the six. As it was plaide before the kings Maiejestie, vpon Candlemasse night last by his Maiejesties Seruants. But more exactly renewed, corrected and augmented since by the Author, for the pleasure and prays of the Reader
[3] The Devil’s Charter, ed. by Nick Hern (London: International Shakespeare Globe Centre, 1999)
[4] Campbell, O. J and E. G. Quinn, The Reader’s Encyclopedia of Shakespeare (New York: Crowell, 1966)
[5] Clark, Stuart, Thinking with Demons: The Idea of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997)
[6] Cox, John D., ‘Stage Devilry in Two King’s Men Plays of 1606’, Modern Language Review, 93 (1998), 934-947
[7] Dominik, Mark, William Shakespeare and The Birth of Merlin (Oregon: Alioth Press, 1991)
[8] Foster, Donald W., review of ‘William Shakespeare and the Birth of Merlin’, ed. by Mark Dominik; ‘Shakespeare’s Lost Play: Edmund Ironside’, ed. by Eric Sams, Shakespeare Quarterly, 39 (1988), 118-123
[9] Greene, Robert, Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay, ed. by J. A. Lavin (London: Ernest Benn Limited, 1969)
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[14] The dramatic and poetical works of Robert Greene & George Peele: with memoirs of the authors and notes, ed. by Alexander Dyce (London: Routledge, 1861)
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[16] Harris, Anthony, Night’s Black Agents: Witchcraft and Magic in Seventeenth-century English Drama (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1980)
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[20] Kirschbaum, Leo, ‘Mephistophilis and the Lost “Dragon”, Review of English Studies, 21 (1945), 233-235
[21] Knight, Sarah, ‘The Niniversity at The Bankside: Robert Greene’s Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay’, in The Oxford Handbook of Tudor Drama, ed. by Betteridge and Walker (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), pp. 355-370
[22] Lawrence, William J., Pre-Restoration Stage Studies (Cambridge: Mass., 1927)
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[27] Marlowe: Doctor Faustus, a Casebook, ed. by John Jump (London: MacMillan and Co Ltd, 1969)
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Author Information
  • English Department, University of Sulaimani, Sulaimani-Kurdistan, Iraq

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    Shokhan Rasool Ahmed. (2014). Dragons on the Jacobean Stage. International Journal of Literature and Arts, 2(5), 173-186. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20140205.15

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ijla.20140205.15,
      author = {Shokhan Rasool Ahmed},
      title = {Dragons on the Jacobean Stage},
      journal = {International Journal of Literature and Arts},
      volume = {2},
      number = {5},
      pages = {173-186},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ijla.20140205.15},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijla.20140205.15},
      eprint = {https://download.sciencepg.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijla.20140205.15},
      abstract = {This paper investigates a mixture of plays both Elizabethan (Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus (1594) and Greene’s Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay (1588-92)), and Jacobean (Barne’s The Devil’s Charter (1607) and Rowley’s The Birth of Merlin (1622)). These plays stage supernatural entities such as male witches, magicians and dragons. What binds all these plays together is having dragon(s) controlled by a magician. It is important to investigate the stage directions of the dragons in making their exits and entrances, what role they have in the plays, and how they affect the character of the drama. This study examines some sorcerer plays with special concentration on the character of the sorcerers, looking at the kinds of rituals and magic they make. Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus, Greene’s Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay, Barnes’s Alexander VI, and Rowley’s Merlin are male magicians and, each has a different role, being assisted by spirits or devils. I will investigate their role in each play and how they relate to witchcraft.},
     year = {2014}
    }
    

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    AB  - This paper investigates a mixture of plays both Elizabethan (Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus (1594) and Greene’s Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay (1588-92)), and Jacobean (Barne’s The Devil’s Charter (1607) and Rowley’s The Birth of Merlin (1622)). These plays stage supernatural entities such as male witches, magicians and dragons. What binds all these plays together is having dragon(s) controlled by a magician. It is important to investigate the stage directions of the dragons in making their exits and entrances, what role they have in the plays, and how they affect the character of the drama. This study examines some sorcerer plays with special concentration on the character of the sorcerers, looking at the kinds of rituals and magic they make. Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus, Greene’s Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay, Barnes’s Alexander VI, and Rowley’s Merlin are male magicians and, each has a different role, being assisted by spirits or devils. I will investigate their role in each play and how they relate to witchcraft.
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