Never Fortune Did Play a Subtler Game: The Creation of "Medieval" Narratives in "Pericles" and "The Two Noble Kinsmen."
- Author/Editor
- Sprang, Felix C.H.
- Title
- Never Fortune Did Play a Subtler Game: The Creation of "Medieval" Narratives in "Pericles" and "The Two Noble Kinsmen."
- Published
- Sprang, Felix C.H. "Never Fortune Did Play a Subtler Game: The Creation of 'Medieval' Narratives in 'Pericles' and 'The Two Noble Kinsmen'." EJES: European Journal of English Studies 15 (2011): 115-28.
- Review
- Sprang examines Shakespeare's interest in the Middle Ages apparent in his late "tragi-comedies," taking both "Pericles" and "Kinsmen" as essentially Shakespearean. What drew his attention, in Sprang's view, was "an exploration of narrative structures and generic boundaries," rather than "themes or ideas" that might be called medieval. In particular, Sprang finds that "in the juxtapositions of grief, happiness, suffering, and joy that the (re)construction of the Middle Ages as an era ruled by 'fatum' [Fate] is clearly evident." The plays "tell the story of a world of inconsistencies and abrupt changes, and the key to their stereotypical view of the Middle Ages lies in their approach to narratives" in the "choice and/or creation of genres that can accommodate these narratives." [RFY. Copyright. The John Gower Society eJGN 40.1]
- Date
- 2011
- Gower Subjects
- Influence and Later Allusion