Monuments and Literary Posterity in Early Modern Drama

In spite of the ephemeral nature of performed drama, playwrights such as Marlowe, Jonson, Webster, Fletcher, and Shakespeare were deeply interested in the endurance of their theatrical work and in their own literary immortality. This book re-evaluates the relationship between these early modern dramatists and literary posterity by considering their work within the context of post-Reformation memorialization. Providing fresh analyses of plays by major dramatists, Brian Chalk considers how they depicted monuments and other funeral properties on stage in order to exploit and criticize the rich ambiguities of commemorative rituals. The book also discusses the print history of the plays featured. The subject will attract scholars and upper-level students of Renaissance drama, memory studies, early modern theatre, and print history.

Introduction: 'raptures of futurity'; 1. 'Let all things end': Marlowe's immortality; 2. Jonson's textual monument; 3. Webster's 'worthyest monument': the problem of posterity in The Duchess of Malfi; 4. 'Mocking life': preemptive commemoration in The Winter's Tale; 5. Fletcher's future: dynasty and collaborative posterity in Henry VIII; Coda: what they hath left us; Select bibliography; Index.

Brian Chalk is Assistant Professor of English at Manhattan College, New York. He has published essays on early modern drama and culture in journals including Studies in Philology and Studies in English Literature, 1500–1900.