| This dissertation examines the relationship between the dramatists of the English Renaissance---especially Shakespeare, but including Jonson, Dekker and others---and Monty Python. The similarities between such seemingly disparate writers/performers include stage practices, employment of troupe members, casting or writing to type, objects, methods and types of satire, the uses and abuses of history for dramatic purposes, the employment of cross-dressing, and, in the specific case of Shakespeare and Monty Python, the cultural emblems both have become as versions of an English National Poet.; Chapter 2 addresses Shakespeare and Monty Python as versions of England's National Poet, and illustrates the cultural appropriation of both Shakespeare and Python. Chapter 3 examines "theatricality," including troupe configurations, the dramatic unities, the allusions to classical literature, preferred targets of satire, anachronisms, and the primacy of English. Chapter 4 discusses the "history" of Shakespeare and Python, especially Falstaff, Shakespeare's created, ahistorical character, and Python's King Arthur, as history is shaped to dramatic purposes. Chapter 5 looks at the various uses of humor, specifically direct and indirect satire and the incongruous as employed by Jonson, Shakespeare and Python, as well as Dekker's Shoemaker's Holiday for its satirical "social leveling." Finally, Chapter 6 approaches the topic of "others" in the works of Python and on the Elizabethan stage, namely foreigners, women, bastards, homosexuals, cross-dressed men, and those who would transgress what might be considered "Englishness."; Monty Python read the National Poet Shakespeare and the influences of English Renaissance drama, adopting the cultural aggregate "Shakespeare" has become over the centuries, both creating anew and refreshing that culture. |
