Description

8vo, br. ed. With the early growth of monarchal absolutism in England, professional acting troupes established themselves. These dramatists of a new secular seriousness act in the shadow of waning Catholic cycle plays controlled by the church. By Shakespeare s time, professional acting troupes are forces of economic production. Specifically, Take My Coxcomb analyzes the ways in which the clowns affect three aspects of Shakespeare s comedies: clowns as markers of changes in audience humor from portrayals of court fool to rustic simpleton, clowns as economic barometers to the financial bonds and social/economic relationships with in their plays, and the expansion of comic devices for clowns that reflect directly Shakespeare s comic development. It is out of the scripting of clowns roles that these three concerns construct Shakespeare s theatrical microcosm of service in late feudal England and its move toward proto-capitalist economics.