Shakespeare among the courtesans
Subtitle: prostitution, literature, and drama, 1500-1650
By: by Duncan James Salkeld
Series: Anglo-Italian renaissance studies
Publisher: Ashgate; Routledge
Published: 2012
Place of publication: Burlington, VT
Language: eng
Number of pages: 220
ISBN-13: 9780754663874
Subjects: Courtesans in literature; Italy; Knowledge; Italian and English; History and criticism; English drama; Prostitutes in literature; Comparative literature; English and Italian; Theory
Description: This book presents a series of studies on the topic of prostitution in early modern drama, viewed in both English and Italian contexts. Drawing on a variety of documentary sources, it discusses social aspects of Shakespeare's time, including rape, child abuse, venereal disease, strangers and 'blackamores', and prostitutes in both Italy and England, some of whom became literary icons. It gives evidence for the sexual history behind Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy, racial tensions behind Marlowe's The Jew of Malta, and it argues that Shakespeare imbued his 'Dark Lady' of the Sonnets with the reputation of a brothel madam named Black Luce who had particular connections with the members of Gray's Inn and Philip Henslowe. In addition, it gives details of a number of early modern women including Matrema non vuol ['Mummy doesn't like it'], twin sisters called the 'Piemontesian executioners', Lucrezia Cognati ('Imperia'), Elizabeth Evans of Stratford on Avon, Jane Trosse, Ann Levens and Rose Flower. The book adds further information about Shakespeare's professional and personal links with Clerkenwell.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction: Classical and early modern counterparts; title: "Foul disease" on the English stage; title: Travellers and the sex trade in early modern London; title: In between renaissance sheets: making contact; title: Courtesan culture in Kyd, Marlowe And Heywood; title: Shakespeares, the Clerkenwell madam and Rose flower; title: Vanishing tricks: Dekker, Marston, Shakespeare and Middleton.