Mathematics and Late Elizabethan Drama

This book considers the influence that sixteenth-century and early seventeenth-century mathematical thinking exerted on the writing and production of popular drama between about 1587 and 1603. It concentrates upon six plays by five early modern dramatists: Tamburlaine, Part 1 (1587) and Tamburlaine, Part 2 (1587) by Christopher Marlowe; Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay (1589) by Robert Greene; Old Fortunatus (1599) by Thomas Dekker; Hamlet (1600) by William Shakespeare; and The Tragedy of Hoffman (1603) by Henry Chettle. Each chapter analyses how the terms, concepts, and implications of contemporary mathematics impacted upon these plays' vocabularies, forms, and aesthetic and dramaturgical effects and affects.

List of contents

-1. Introduction.- 2. Algebra and the Art of War: Marlowe's Tamburlaine 1 and 2 .- 3. 'Magic, and the Mathematic Rules': Greene's Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay.- 4. Circular Geometries: Dekker's Old Fortunatus.- 5. Infinities and Infinitesimals: Shakespeare's Hamlet.- 6. Quantifying Death, Calculating Revenge: Chettle's Tragedy of Hoffman.- 7. Conclusion.

About the author

Joseph Jarrett is currently a Lumley Junior Research Fellow at Magdalene College, University of Cambridge, UK.

Summary

This book considers the influence that sixteenth-century and early seventeenth-century mathematical thinking exerted on the writing and production of popular drama between about 1587 and 1603. It concentrates upon six plays by five early modern dramatists: Tamburlaine, Part 1 (1587) and Tamburlaine, Part 2 (1587) by Christopher Marlowe; Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay (1589) by Robert Greene; Old Fortunatus (1599) by Thomas Dekker; Hamlet (1600) by William Shakespeare; and The Tragedy of Hoffman (1603) by Henry Chettle. Each chapter analyses how the terms, concepts, and implications of contemporary mathematics impacted upon these plays’ vocabularies, forms, and aesthetic and dramaturgical effects and affects.

Product details

• Authors: Joseph Jarrett
• Publisher: Springer, Berlin
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 01.01.2019
• EAN: 9783030265656
• ISBN: 978-3-0-3026565-6
• No. of pages: 242
• Dimensions: 156 mm x 212 mm x 21 mm
• Weight: 454 g
• Illustrations: XI, 242 p. 16 illus., 9 illus. in color.
• Series: Palgrave Studies in Literature, Science and Medicine
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies; Drama, Theaterwissenschaft, B, Theatre Studies, Literature, Cultural and Media Studies, Geschichte der darstellenden Künste, Theater—History, Theatre History, Early Modern/Renaissance Literature, Early Modern and Renaissance Literature, Literature, Modern, Literary studies: plays & playwrights