R-3 Repository :: Browsing by Author "Camden, Carroll"

Browsing by Author "Camden, Carroll"

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Ben Jonson's feud with the poetasters, 1599-1601
(1960) McMurtry, Larry Jeff; Camden, Carroll
Cyril Tourner's The revenger's tragedy: the moral context
(1958) Corrington, John William; Camden, Carroll
Doctor Faustus and Elizabethan popular theology
(1961) Ewton, Gene Stephenson; Camden, Carroll
This thesis is an attempt to examine Christopher Marlowe's Tragical History of Dr. Faustus from the point of view of Elizabethan popular theology. The first chapter deals with the problem of knowledge, the second, with witchcraft, and the third, with the question of sin and damnation. Each of these three topics, discussed frenquently in Elizabethan theological treatises intended for popular use, represents a significant element in the play. The approach has been to ascertain what ideas found in Elizabethan popular theology are expressed in Dr. Faustus, and to suggest what these ideas indicate about possible meanings of passages involved.
Elizabethan domestic affairs in the plays of William Shakespeare
(1958) Herndon, Nancy Ruth; Camden, Carroll
The Elizabethan Imogen
(Rice University, 1951-04) Camden, Carroll; Electronic version made possible with funding from the Rice Historical Society and Thomas R. Williams, Ph.D., class of 2000.
English Renaissance dream theory and its use in Shakespeare
(1958) Rees, Compton; Camden, Carroll
Moliere's Les precieuses ridicules and English Restoration comedy
(1961) Gregory, Elmer Richard; Camden, Carroll
Sexual energy and moral order in Middleton's The Changeling
(1965) Hengeveld, Dennis Allen; Camden, Carroll
The Renaissance in England can best be characterized as a period that was neither medieval nor modern, but during which the decaying and emerging modern world views existed side by side. The modern emphasis on individualism, social mobility, and the doctrine of progress can also be found in seventeenth-century England. At the same time, the belief in an ultimate moral order and a Christian cosmosgraphy remained firm until at least the middle of the eighteenth century. Moreover, men of the Renaissance firmly believed that the best earthly form of government, in the commonwealth, in the community, and in the family, corresponded to the order God imposed on his creation as a whole. The great tragedies written during the English Renaissance were, I believe, at least partially the result of the tension that existed between these different world views. On the one hand, Renaissance protagonists possessed a large store of individual energy which made them heroic if not always good men. On the other hand, when they overstepped the bounds established for all men by moral law, whether that law was manifested in an earthly order or known through the revelation of God's will, they had to be destroyed. Thus, an audience could appreciate the hero and at the same time understand the necessity of his destruction. In Thomas Middleton's The Changeling energy takes the form of sexual desire. What Beatrice calls her "love" for Alsemero is really the same thing as De Flores's lust for her. As a result, murder seems to both of them an insignificant price to pay for sensual gratification. Beatrice and De Flores dominate the play's main action; while they are morally repugnant, they have a fascination for their audience. Everyday virtue seems pale beside their sins. But Beatrice must fall since she has severed all connection with the proper moral order, in this case the family structure, by murdering her fiance. Each of her evil actions necessitates the next, until finally the sins themselves cause her discovery. After she and De Flores have been destroyed, order is restored and a new family structure is built. While the forms energy and order take in Middleton's play are unique, their interaction and the resolution of the tension between them is perfectly in keeping with other Renaissance tragedies and with the beliefs of the age itself. At least in The Changeling, Thomas Middleton appears very much a man of his own age.
Shakespeare and the sixteenth century judgment of the Cleopatra story
(1959) Mosle, Paula Meredith; Camden, Carroll
Shakespeare's treatment of Elizabethan ideas about death
(1958) Seibert, Loris Elaine; Camden, Carroll
Spenser's "Little Fish, that Men Called Remora"
(Rice University, 1957-04) Camden, Carroll; Electronic version made possible with funding from the Rice Historical Society and Thomas R. Williams, Ph.D., class of 2000.
The London cit: the treatment of his character in English realistic comedy 1598-1640
(1966) Read, Patricia Elinor; Camden, Carroll
The first half of the seventeenth century was a period of critical social readjustment in England. Medieval concepts of the nature of the ideal society were being challenged at every point by the reality of a daily existence in which the reins of power were passing from the hands of the old landed aristocracy into the hands of the emerging mercantile class. The transition period was one of tension, for the aristocracy clung tenaciously to its hereditary privileges. In the struggle, the writers of realistic comedy allied themselves, for both ideological and economic reasons, on the conservative side, the side of the old nobility. The treatment of the character of the London citizen (or "cit" as Shirley calls him in "The Gamester") in the comedies of London life reflects the conservative bias of the comic playwrights. The citizens of London had emerged during the latter half of the reign of Elizabeth as a pressure group of considerable strength, deriving their power from wealth acquired in trade (both domestic and foreign) which experienced unprecedented expansion during this period. Throughout the reigns of James I and Charles I the Londoners exploited every menus in their struggle to acquire the political power which would enable them to protect their interests through control of trade policies, which formerly had been part of the prerogative of the Crown. As their economic base lay in trade rather than in land, so their ideological base was found in the Puritan theology of Calvin rather than in the conservative tenets which the Church of England had inherited from medieval Catholicism. The struggle of the London citizens to liberate themselves from restrictive government policies thus took on religious as well as economic implications. Early in the period between 1598 and 1640 some playwrights like Heywood and Dekker still sought to appeal to the citizen audiences of the public theaters. Despite the disapproval of the public officials of the city and the Puritan clergymen, the public theaters remained popular by presenting the old fashioned histories and comedies which appealed to the common taste. The citizen is presented as a hero in a number of realistic comedies. But he is a type of citizen of whom the upper classes would approve. He is generally a small craftsman, who because he rejoices in his city and his citizen status, does not seek to advance himself or his family beyond the limits of his own class. Nor does he seek to entrap unwary gentlemen by manipulating his economic power, Rather he supports the status quo, accepting without question the division between commoner and noble, and accepting also the privileges of a man of gentle birth. As the lines of social conflict became clearer, it was apparent that the dramatist had to appeal to the aristocratic audience of the private theaters to be financially successful. Thus many of the realistic comedies of this period patently celebrate the gentle classes at the expense of the mercantile classes of the City. The dramatists use the cit as a blocking character who must be eliminated from the play or converted to the gentle view of existence in order for the equilibrium of the comic world to be restored. The citizen is shown to be dominated by the sin of avarice; he becomes a usurer, bent on ruining young gentlemen by pandering to their vices in order to get them into debt. Or he is shown as a socially aggressive man who, violating all the tenets of correct social behavior for one of low station, pushes himself forward by his wealth into the society of his betters. Such characters are always defeated by agents of a more traditional world, thus the conservative position in English social theory is upheld by the writers of realistic comedy from 1598-1640.
The Old Testament plays of the Corpus Christi cycles: an analysis of the dramatization of their theological themes
(1965) Neuendorf, Klaus Karl Ernst; Camden, Carroll
The object of investigation in this paper is the group of Old Testament plays from the Corpus Christi cycles. The plays of Chester, York, Wakefield and the Ludus Coventriae are discussed in their cyclical sequence. The main point of each individual analysis is to define the relationship between the theological significance of the scriptural material (as it was understood in the Middle Ages) and the dramatization based on the same material. The group of plays is divided into two parts: plays on the events connected with the creation and before man's fall into sin and those on events that follow the original sin. It is shown how in the first group the theological prerequisites are presented for relationship between God and man. Where this presentation develops into dramatic action, as. in the scene of Lucifer's fall, its character becomes homiletic, demonstrating good and bad examples. The second group contains plays on significant interactions between God and man in a world tainted by sin; in these plays the shift of emphasis from theology to homiletic instruction appears regularly. Analysis shows that it keeps the plays in correspondence with the traditional liturgical function of the Old Testament readings in the Middle Ages. It appears that the roots of dramatic innovations, such as Noah's wife, are to be found in the same change of emphasis. The general theme of the Old Testament plays is closely related to the liturgical and homiletic tradition of the season of Lent and, furthermore, it is generally kept in a negative tone. For these reasons it is termed "the history of sin."
Tradition and theme in Robinson Crusoe
(1962) Hunter, J. Paul, 1934-; Camden, Carroll; McKillop, Alan D.; Neilsen, N. C., Jr.
Although it bears superficial resemblances to the tradition: of travel literature, Robinson Crusoe in its total form differs greatly from that tradition, and the characteristics which set it apart (particularly the thematic structure) suggest that its real affinities lie with the traditions of Puritan religious literature. Robinson Crusoe embodies many of the concerns of conduct books and the providence literature tradition, and structurally it resembles closely spiritual biography and pilgrim allegory. Robinson Crusoe is structured on the basis of a disobedience—punishment—repentance—deliverance pattern, and all of the novel's events are interpreted retrospectively according to this pattern. Defoe often allows pointed Biblical allusion to carry the weight of meaning, especially during Crusoe's early flight from responsibility, during his illness and conversion, and in the novel's final major section--the episode of the wolves. Ultimately, Crusoe's struggle to gain a proper relationship with his world takes on a spiritual dimension, and Crusoe's physical activities often parallel his spiritual aspirations. Viewed against the background of Puritan religious traditions, Robinson Crusoe evidences a profound debt to Puritan idea and metaphoric conception. Defoe uses fundamental Puritan metaphors of existence and spiritual alienation to create a world in which man's basic conflicts take place in a cosmical, yet personal setting. In utter distress, desolation and loneliness, Crusoe finds in God's grace power to overcome a hostile world of hunger and sickness, animal and human brutality, even power to overcome his most dangerous adversary—himself. An Everyman, Crusoe begins as a wanderer, aimless on a sea he does not understand; he ends as a pilgrim crossing a final mountain to enter the promised land.

Browsing by Author "Camden, Carroll"

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