making young men come forth in whore's attire

[angevin2]

So as some of you know, I've done a lot of work on early modern antitheatrical literature, and since ODNB's Life of the Day is noted churchman and antitheatrical writer John Rainoldes, whose Overthrow of Stage-Playes I've used frequently in discussions of the genre, I thought I'd post a link. He had an interesting life.

Life of John Rainoldes, by

Comments

[paraleipsis]

That senses are moved, affections are delighted, hearts though strong and constant are vanquished by such players? That an effeminate stage-player, while he feigneth love, imprinteth wounds of love?

See, I think it reads like, "These pretty boys in dresses are giving me feelings! They are BAD BAD FEELINGS! Yet these feelings feel so...yummy...

"CLEARLY THIS IS THE FAULT OF THE BOYS! Those pretty, pretty boys."

[angevin2]

Well, that too.

But it's totally because they MADE HIM WEAR THAT DRESS. ;)

[tempestsarekind]

*giggles* Though I would say it reads like, "They made me wear a dress... AND I LIKED IT!"

I read fairly recently that Stephen Gosson had written a couple of plays (it may have been in Park Honan's Marlowe biography, not that I finished it--Gosson was a Canterbury boy), and I can't take him seriously now as an antitheatrical ranter. Clearly the problem is that he just wrote plays nobody wanted.

[angevin2]

He admits to it in The Schoole of Abuse, actually, where he says that some plays are probably okay, if they don't have women or dirty jokes in them, although he changes his mind by the time he gets to Playes Confuted in Five Actions, and makes reference to one of his own plays.

He probably still deserves more credit as an antitheatricalist (heh), though, than playwright, spy, and general all-around prick Anthony Munday, who iirc wrote some antitheatrical pamphlets but didn't really mean it at all. (His plays are generally okay, though. Probably, if Gosson's prose style is anything to judge by, better than Gosson's. ;) )

[tempestsarekind]

He admits to it in The Schoole of Abuse, actually

...And that, boys and girls, is what happens when you only read selections. Oops.

[saltedpin]

Now it all reads like "OMG THEY MADE ME WEAR A DRESS WHEN I WAS 17!"
AHAHAHA. Poor, interfered with man.

As an irrelevant aside, I always wanted to call a cat 'Mordechai'.