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This chapter analyzes theatrical efforts to stage divinity and the divine order of nature in the centuries before Shakespeare, including liturgical tropes, cycle plays, and interludes of early Tudor England. It ends with critical readings of one play each by Shakespeare and his rival Christopher Marlowe. The emergence of new modes of dramatic mimesis within the Catholic church in the twelfth century coincided with radical new questions about Christian theology, shaped in part by the reintroduction of classical natural philosophy from Arabic translations of and commentaries on Aristotle. Extending theological debates of the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215 about how to represent divinity, much medieval drama attempted to render invisible and divine forces visible, locating the created, material world as the necessary intermediary between profane witnesses and the sacred truths they seek. For example, where the quem quaeritis trope follows the logic of resurrection in staging both the visibility and invisibility of Christ’s body, the Play of Adam figures divinity in terms of the ordo creationis and the typological anticipation of the birth of Christ. Tudor interludes by Henry Medwall, John Rastell, and others mix sacred and secular registers, drawing on theological debates and modes of natural philosophy in order to question divine creation. Such efforts to stage the divine order of nature link medieval and early modern forms of drama together, even though those forms were also significantly different in many ways. Like earlier forms of drama, for example, Doctor Faustus defines its central visual spectacles in terms of the desire to know both God and the ordo creationis, while Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet follows Marlowe in framing nature as both a divine and potentially demonic force that must be understood through mimesis. Shakespeare’s tragedy in particular employs the language of showing and seeing to express its own complex desire to represent invisible passions and to sway the audience with voice, language, and gesture.

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Staging Nature

  • 章节

  • 发表日期：

    2025年

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  • Aaron Kitch

摘要

This chapter analyzes theatrical efforts to stage divinity and the divine order of nature in the centuries before Shakespeare, including liturgical tropes, cycle plays, and interludes of early Tudor England. It ends with critical readings of one play each by Shakespeare and his rival Christopher Marlowe. The emergence of new modes of dramatic mimesis within the Catholic church in the twelfth century coincided with radical new questions about Christian theology, shaped in part by the reintroduction of classical natural philosophy from Arabic translations of and commentaries on Aristotle. Extending theological debates of the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215 about how to represent divinity, much medieval drama attempted to render invisible and divine forces visible, locating the created, material world as the necessary intermediary between profane witnesses and the sacred truths they seek. For example, where the quem quaeritis trope follows the logic of resurrection in staging both the visibility and invisibility of Christ’s body, the Play of Adam figures divinity in terms of the ordo creationis and the typological anticipation of the birth of Christ. Tudor interludes by Henry Medwall, John Rastell, and others mix sacred and secular registers, drawing on theological debates and modes of natural philosophy in order to question divine creation. Such efforts to stage the divine order of nature link medieval and early modern forms of drama together, even though those forms were also significantly different in many ways. Like earlier forms of drama, for example, Doctor Faustus defines its central visual spectacles in terms of the desire to know both God and the ordo creationis, while Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet follows Marlowe in framing nature as both a divine and potentially demonic force that must be understood through mimesis. Shakespeare’s tragedy in particular employs the language of showing and seeing to express its own complex desire to represent invisible passions and to sway the audience with voice, language, and gesture.