A Midsummer Night’s Dream is “meta-aesthetic” (Grady 2008) in that it incessantly foregrounds a self-awareness of the underlying principles of Elizabethan dramatic convention and generates comedy through their transgression. This... more
A Midsummer Night’s Dream is “meta-aesthetic” (Grady 2008) in that it incessantly foregrounds a self-awareness of the underlying principles of Elizabethan dramatic convention and generates comedy through their transgression. This establishes an underlying comic cycle which relies on the link between transgression and transformation for impetus. This comic cycle - being Dream’s fundamental dramatic mechanism – transgresses an extant order to recombine its elements through a transformation which replenishes the play with a stability ripe for re-disturbance.
Hermia’s Irrisio Gentilium Philosophorum is here studied, particular focus being on its peculiar features as for style and literary genre. By way of formal analysis of Hermias’ cultural background, some new perspectives on the date of... more
Hermia’s Irrisio Gentilium Philosophorum is here studied, particular focus being on its peculiar features as for style and literary genre. By way of formal analysis of Hermias’ cultural background, some new perspectives on the date of composition of Hermias’ work are presented, and through in-depth examination of the author’s use of both pagan and christian sources Usener’s emendation at 12,4 is defended, with an Appendix on Maffacini’s Pinoculus.
A new performance edition makes it possible to combine the Mendelssohn music with the Shakespeare play in a successful production especially in university settings.
