This article argues that Shakespeare's Othello and The Winter's Tale display a Catholic sensibility toward beauty and the veneration of images. In Othello, Iago functions as the chief iconoclastic figure, one who desires to destroy the most beautiful and pure character in the play, Desdemona, a character who in many ways resembles the Virgin Mary. Iago poisons Othello's mind against Desdemona's beauty in an effort to make Othello question the very nature of beauty itself. Iago's actions mirror sixteenth-century iconoclasts who similarly sought to remove images and statues from Christian worship. Likewise, in The Winter's Tale, Leontes embraces iconoclastic rhetoric after he suspects Hermione has been unfaithful. But Hermione remains entirely without blame throughout the play, considered by everyone but Leontes to be a spotless queen. Like Desdemona, her character carries overtones with the Virgin Mary, and the final scene of the play suggests she functions as a statue-reliquary, a popular medieval devotion. The pilgrimage to Hermione's statue thus reverses Leontes’ iconoclasm and functions as a redemptive moment, suggesting the transformative power of beauty.
This essay argues that Queen Anna of Denmark did not cease masquing in 1611 simply due to political marginalization or grief, but strategically to pass a powerful propaganda tool to her son, Prince Henry. It contends that Anna educated Henry in using masques as she had: to grow his political influence and fashion an oppositional image to that of King James. It further demonstrates that the King came to covet this power, and that poets like Ben Jonson and Thomas Campion helped him seize the masquing platform. Yet evidence suggests that they, too, learned their techniques from Queen Anna.
This article repositions John Fletcher as a pivotal, yet overlooked, figure in the English reception of commedia dell’arte. While previous scholarship has largely ignored Fletcher's engagement with Italian comic traditions, this study presents new evidence that his dramaturgy does more than echo commedia motifs: it actively and inventively recombines them within English contexts. Through close analysis of plays including The Captain, Monsieur Thomas, The Night-Walkers, The Mad Lover, Thierry and Theodoret, The False One, and Women Pleased, the article traces Fletcher's evolving use of commedia dell’arte elements, from isolated borrowings to organic integration. It demonstrates how Fletcher adapted Italian lazzi, character types, and theatrical routines, not only enriching English comedy but also experimenting with cross-generic migration into tragedy and history plays. The study employs textual comparison, theatergram analysis, and performance historiography to reveal Fletcher's cosmopolitan stagecraft and his role in transnational theatrical exchange. Ultimately, the article argues that Fletcher's work challenges rigid notions of national theatrical boundaries, highlighting the modular, non-linear transmission of comic traditions and inviting a broader reconsideration of early modern English drama as a dynamic, European palimpsest.
The Hypnerotomachia Poliphili (hereafter ‘ HP’) was published anonymously through the Aldine Press in Venice in 1499 and again in 1545. It is a philosophical dream vision and love narrative incorporating scholastic and humanist learning. Although it sold only a few copies in Italy at first, it has captured the imagination of numerous artists and authors. The narrative displays an engagement with architectural theory, scholastic and humanist philosophy, Neoplatonic, alchemical and mathematical symbolism beside elegy, lovesickness, garden design and topographical symbolism. Its story is written in a combination of Italian vernacular and Latin, and though read by a few, was the source of much inspiration. This is the case for Ben Jonson, as is observed through his extensive marginalia in his copy of the 1545 HP and through the echoes of the HP’s narrative in his masques. This paper endeavours to critically examine this relationship.
