Forms of Hypocrisy in Early Modern England

Description

This collection examines the widespread phenomenon of hypocrisy in literary, theological, political, and social circles in England during the years after the Reformation and up to the Restoration. Bringing together current critical work on early modern subjectivity, performance, print history, and private and public identities and space, the collection provides readers with a way into the complexity of the term, by offering an overview of different forms of hypocrisy, including educational practice, social transaction, dramatic technique, distorted worship, female deceit, print controversy, and the performance of demonic possession. Together these approaches present an interdisciplinary examination of a term whose meanings have always been assumed, yet never fully outlined, despite the proliferation of publications on aspects of hypocrisy such as self-fashioning and disguise. Questions the chapters collectively pose include: how did hypocritical discourse conceal concerns relating to social status, gender roles, religious doctrine, and print culture? How was hypocrisy manifest materially? How did different literary genres engage with hypocrisy? Introduction Lucia Nigri and Naya Tsentou Hypocrisy, Dissimulation and Education for Civic Life in Pre-Revolutionary England MARKKU PELTONEN Trading in Gratitude: John Donne’s Verse Epistles to His Patronesses SILVIA BIGLIAZZI Religious Hypocrisy in Performance: Roman Catholicism and The London Stage LUCIA NIGRI Flattery, Hypocrisy and Identity in Thomas of Woodstock ROSSANA M. SEBELLIN "Come buy Lawn Sleeves": Linen and Material Hypocrisy in Milton’s Antiprelatical Tracts NAYA TSENTOUROU "Much like the picture of the Devill in a play": hypocrisy and demonic possession JACQUELINE PEARSON Abject Hypocrisy: Gender, Religion, and the Self KATE HODGKIN Henry Hills and the Tailor’s Wife: Adultery and Hypocrisy in the Archive MICHAEL DURRANT