Rhetorical subversion in early English drama
By: Douglas W. Hayes.
Series: Studies in the humanities,; v. 64; Studies in the humanities (New York, N.Y.) ;; v. 64.
Publisher: P. Lang
Published: 2004
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 152
Subjects: English drama -- Early modern and Elizabethan, 1500-1600 -- History and criticism.; Villains in literature.; English language -- Middle English, 1100-1500 -- Rhetoric.; English language -- Early modern, 1500-1700 -- Rhetoric.; English drama -- 17th century -- History and criticism.; English drama -- To 1500 -- History and criticism.; Vices in literature.; Evil in literature.
Description: "This book centers on the uses and abuses of language in early English drama. It examines a number of plays alongside classical and sixteenth-century rhetorical treatises and focuses on the appearances of one stock character, the Vice figure, to determine how he uses language to dupe, implicate, and control others in the plays. The Vice figure is usually very skilled in the use of rhetoric and, in many cases, seems to be so persuasive and entertaining that the moral aims of the drama appear to be jeopardized. Douglas W. Hayes investigates the moral and rhetorical ambivalence of the Vice figure not only in Medieval morality plays and Tudor interludes, but also in the language of later characters related to the Vice such as Marlowe's Mephastophilis and Shakespeare's Falstaff and Iago."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [137]-147)  and index.
Table of contents: title: Backbiter; title: Mankind; title: Nichol Newfangle; title: Ambidexter; title: Mephastophilis; title: Falstaff and Iago.