Alice

Maybe it's because I'm looking for it, but I've found a lot of stuff Marlowe and Shakespeare wrote to be pretty cunningly subversive to Renaissance norms, supporting pretty liberal and open minded philosophies that didn't seem to really exist, at least in any strength, until much later - mostly in the form of ironic or sarcastic caricature of minority groups such as Jews, Muslims, Turks, and women. And, even though Arden of Feversham doesn't have have an author attributed, I feel the same way about this work - especially since many attribute the play to Shakespeare. Alice is an interesting and engaging character much in the same way Matilda is in The Monk; even though she is "bad" and "evil," her character is cunning, complex, and very smart, able to think for herself and work independently for her own means. In this way she also reminds me a little of Tamburlaine.

I find myself not really caring that she has her husband killed so much as I find it interesting she believes that love transcends social class and that she is willingly to actively take steps to determine her love life, instead of letting it be passively dictated. The first point is interesting, as Arden condemns Mosby because he aspires to rise higher than he was born, but does so in a way reminiscent of how racial and religious other are lumped, insulting and degrading him in a way that reminds me of how Barbaras and Shylock are treated in the first acts of Jew of Malta and Merchant of Venice, respectively. Interestingly, while this play seems to intially be about an affair and lust and love, Arden and Mosby's conflict revolves around class - that's why Arden hates Mosby, moreso than because of the affair, and in the end when Arden is killed Mosby seeks revenge on insult rather than to woo Alice.

I think it's a contradiction in that women were viewed as the "oversexed" gender in the Renaissance period and yet the view is also that women were relatively passive in relationships during this period. And again, maybe it's because I'm looking for it, but there seems to be a lot of sexual references that vary between clever and blunt, and they all made me laugh a little (my favorite being "Why should he thrust his sickle in our corn...").

As usual, I'll end with my favorite use of language in the play. When Mosby defends himself to Arden, he says "Measure me what I am, not what I was." But he was a tailor, and he uses the term "measure," a pun I don't think I got the first time around but I think is hilarious.