The English Clown Tradition from the Middle Ages to Shakespeare: 26 (Studies in Renaissance Literature) - Tapa blanda

Hornback's highly original approach works; he offers a balanced, thorough analysis of the ideological underpinnings of a heretofore lost tradition of early English satirical clowning that manages to restore the historical complexity that New Historicists' readings frequently simplified. Moreover, the wealth of close readings combined with his use of many colorful primary texts renders this richly complex yet ultimately accessible work appropriate to scholar and student alike. MEDIAEVISTIK

Persuasive, and most valuable to all interested in the antic, buffoonish, or satirical characters of the Renaissance stage. SHAKESPEARE QUARTERLY

An important study. CHRONIQUE

This is a valuable and very welcome study on a sorely neglected subject. What it demonstrates with admirable clarity is how mobile and heterogeneous this staple of early modern comedy could be. MEDIUM AEVUM

A fascinating book filled with important revelations. [It] is admirable in its breadth of vision and its specificity and [it] challenges some long-held assumptions. COMPARATIVE DRAMA, November 2010

Provides an enlightening and thought-provoking account of the somewhat over-determined subject of the English stage clown. [...] It also sheds some significant light on the workings of the nascent professional theatre which clearly depended on a ludic repertoire in order to underpin and ensure both public and private patronage. Hornback's book shows, however, that clowning and the comic tradition was not only an outlet for social tensions, or comic relief [...] but also a source and arena for important political, religious, and ideological discourse. NOTES AND QUERIES

[A] useful, clearly written book. ENGLISH STUDIES

Offers a significant rethinking of early modern English clown traditions and how they interact and represent tensions within Renaissance culture. CHOICE

Makes a valuable addition to the scholarly literature on early modern clowning, especially for its welcome focus on religion and race. RENAISSANCE QUARTERLY

With fascinating detail on virtually every page of this book, [the author] has produced a kind of academic page-turner. The English Clown Tradition deserves to be held in very high regard. TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT

English theatrical clowns carried a weighty cultural significance from the late medieval period through to the seventeenth century, only to have it stripped from them, sometimes violently, at the close of the Renaissance, when the `license' of fooling was revoked. This survey of clown traditions during the period looks at their history and reveals their hidden cultural contexts and legacies. It has far-reaching implications not only for a general understanding of English clown types, but also for understanding their considerable role in defining social, religious and racial boundaries. The study begins with an exploration of previously misconstrued early representations of blackness in medieval psalters, cycle plays, and Tudor interludes, arguing that such depictions are more emblematic of folly and ignorance than of evil. Other elements of the clown tradition examined here include the patronage of a clownish, iconoclastic Lord of Misrule by Protestants at Cambridge and at court during the reigns of Henry VIII and Edward; the Puritan clown of the Elizabethan stage; and the Fool in King Lear, about whom fresh and provocative conclusions are reached. The epilogue focuses on the satirical clowning which took place surreptitiously in the Interregnum, and the causes and manner of the revoking of `licensed' foolery.