Fictions of Clandestine Marriage in Early Modern England: Spenser, Marlowe, Shakespeare
Open Access
- Author:
- Cleland, Katharine
- Graduate Program:
- English
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- August 01, 2011
- Committee Members:
- Patrick G Cheney, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Patrick G Cheney, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Robert R Edwards, Committee Member
Garrett Sullivan Jr., Committee Member
Laura Lunger Knoppers, Committee Member
Joan Landes, Committee Member - Keywords:
- Christopher Marlowe
Edmund Spenser
English Reformation
clandestine marriage
William Shakespeare
early modern courtship - Abstract:
- The dissertation examines literary representations of clandestine marriage in early modern England. After the English Reformation, the Book of Common Prayer standardized the marriage ritual for the first time, and marriage’s explicit purpose became the building of strong Protestant households and communities. To encourage compliance with the new rituals, the ecclesiastical courts considered any marriage ceremony or pact that took place without church solemnization to be “clandestine.” The fact that the courts could only punish, not invalidate, irregular unions, however, resulted in anxiety and confusion over what constituted a legitimate match. This study argues that early modern authors portray clandestine marriages to experiment with the Reformation’s impact on the intersection between the self and the marriage ritual. Augmenting recent literary and historical studies of marriage, it provides the first examination of the controversial social practice in a variety of genres—from the epic and epyllion to drama and complaint. In particular the dissertation investigates the impact of clandestine marriage on the selfhood and identity of characters in the works of three major authors: Edmund Spenser, Christopher Marlowe, and William Shakespeare. In doing so, it reveals that fictions of clandestine marriage provide crucial insight into the shift and value of the marital bond in the wake of the English Reformation.