Ivan Cañadas, What is in a Heroine’s Name? Beatrice-Joanna in
The Changeling. pp. 129~154 ( 26 pages)
Abstract
This article discusses the significance of the name of the
female protagonist of Middleton and Rowley’ The Changeling, and
addresses the play’ engagement with early modern discourses
ofgender, patriarchal authority, rank and national identity. It
identifies literary allusions, both to Dante’ Beatrice, and to Joan
of Arc, as depicted in Shakespeare’ Henry VI, Part I. It considers
The Changeling (1622) in relation to the revenge tragedy subgenre
for which Thomas Kyd’ The Spanish Tragedy (ca. mid-1580s; pub. 1592)
had established a pattern for dramatists around thirty years prior
to the writing of The Changeling. That Kyd’ play also shares The
Changeling’ Spanish setting—within a tradition of perverse,
Italianate settings in English drama—is of considerable importance
to a proper understanding of the Middleton-Tourneur play, its plot,
and the villainous couple at its heart: De Flores and the female
villain, Beatrice-Joanna.
Such dramatic conventions involving the setting were,
moreover, topically aggravated through widespread Protestant
animosities against a proposed marriage alliance—the ‘panish
Match’crisis—between Spain and England in the 1620s, as noted by
other critics.
Lastly, a case is presented, involving the historical,
Spanish queen figure of Juana la loca—Joan(na)the Mad
(1479-1555)—which highlights the roles of gender-conflict, madness
and marriage alliances with England, pertinent in the context of The
Changeling’ themes and of the play’ setting in Alicante, also the
place of residence of the English merchant, JohnReynolds, author of
the play’ source.
저자 키워드 Key words
Thomas Middleton, William Rowley, The Changeling,
Beatrice-Joanna, literary naming, Jacobean drama, the unruly woman,
marriage alliances, royal succession, ‘Spanish Match’ crisis, Dante
Alighieri, The Divine Comedy, Vita Nuova, John Reynolds, The
Triumphs of God’s Revenge, Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part I, Joan of
Arc, Thomas Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy, Shakespeare, Othello