No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

Aaron's Roots: Spaniards, Englishmen, and Blackamoors in Titus Andronicus Focusing on the play's genealogy and various allusions to the black legend, this article recovers the long-neglected Spanish dimension of Gothic identity in Titus Andronicus and reconsiders the racial discourse of the play in the light of this information. Within an analogical setup associating Goths with Spaniards and Romans with Englishmen, the play attempts intellectual emancipation: it attempts to think through the topical question of the black African presence in 1590s England on English termsoutside of the Iberian conceptual frameworks with which black Africans had long been associated.Why is Aaron the Moor part of the Gothic court in Titus Andronicus? Given the importance of this character to the development of a racial discourse in early modern English theatre, investigating the reasons for his presence in the play is crucial. I seek to understand the merger of the Moors' and the Goths' histories, pushing beyond 'inextricability' and 'inexplicability', to quote Emily C. Bartels. 1 According to the dominant critical consensus, Aaron condenses and makes more visible through blackface the difference of the white barbarians within the Roman community. 2 Without rejecting that interpretation, I propose a complementary reading of Titus Andronicus in light of early modern European sociohistorical contexts and transnational exchanges. I argue that among the possible readings of Roman and Gothic identities in the play, one reading emphasizes the Spanishness of the Goths in late sixteenth-century perceptions. Reckoning with this analogy and recuperating the long-neglected Spanish dimension of Titus Andronicus can impact productively our understanding of Aaron and of the play's treatment of race and slavery. Indeed, close readings reveal that, within an analogical framework, the play attempts to think through the question of the black presence in 1590s England on English terms -outside of the older Iberian conceptual frameworks with which black Africans had long been associated. In Noémie Ndiaye (nn2274@columbia.edu) is a doctoral candidate in theatre in the department of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University.60 Noémie Ndiaye this article, I first pinpoint the most salient Spanish elements in the play before turning to moments when the play contests or distances itself from the Iberian cultural framework. Finally, I examine the incipient English take on race and slavery that the play proposes. Spain in Titus AndronicusIn España en Shakespeare, Pedro Juan Duque devotes a total of five lines to Titus Andronicus, stating that the play cannot be traced back to any Spanish source. 3 This assessment ignores the fact that the character of Aaron, as I will show, has its roots in Matteo Bandello's twenty-first novella (Part three), which is based upon a well-known incident that happened in the Spanish island of Mallorca in the second half of the fifteenth century. 4 Giovanni Pontano first imported this Spanish anecdote into Ital...

A Gypsy woman dances the Morris on the green with a human-sized baboon: such is the vision offered to spectators in act 3 scene 5 of Shakespeare and Fletcher's play, The Two Noble Kinsmen (1613). 1 As countrymen and countrywomen led by the local schoolmaster rehearse a Morris for Duke Theseus, they realize that they are one woman short: the countryman dressed as a Baboon has no female partner to dance with. Enter the jailer's daughter who, jilted, has turned mad, and the company quickly decides to recruit her. "Schoolmaster: And are you mad, good woman? Daughter: I would be sorry else. Give me your hand. Schoolmaster: Why? Daughter: I can tell your fortune. (She looks at his hand.) You are a fool" (3.5.78-80). 2 By offering to perform palmistry, the jailer's daughter presents herself, albeit briefly, as a figure that an early modern audience would immediately have recognized as a Gypsy woman. Since the term "Gypsy" served earlier in the play to reject romantic suitors, 3 the My gratitude goes to Jean E. Howard for her insightful suggestions and comments on this piece, and to the three anonymous reviewers at ELR whose feedback helped me strengthen this essay in every possible way.1. In this essay, I use the term "Gypsy" in keeping with its early modern usage. I save the term "Roma" for moments when I refer to the real-life ethnic group to which this racial slur was affixed.2. Quotations from The Two Noble Kinsmen excerpted from William Shakespeare, The Complete Works, ed. Gary Taylor et al. (Oxford, 2016). My reading of this scene is focused on Gypsiness specifically. For excellent accounts of the Africanist discourse in the same scene, see Sujata Iyengar,