Abstract: ‘“To Creep Into the Bowels of Our Own Kingdom”: Familism, Disease, and the Body Politic in John Marston’s The Dutch Courtesan’ (Fleck)

Dublin Core

Title

Abstract: ‘“To Creep Into the Bowels of Our Own Kingdom”: Familism, Disease, and the Body Politic in John Marston’s The Dutch Courtesan’ (Fleck)

Subject

The Dutch Courtesan, "Marston, John", Dutch Courtesan 2019, Toronto Dutch Courtesan, conference abstract, early modern drama, non-Shakespearean drama, Familism, the Family of Love

Description

Abstract for Andrew Fleck's ‘“To Creep Into the Bowels of Our Own Kingdom”: Familism, Disease, and the Body Politic in John Marston’s The Dutch Courtesan’. Includes biography for Fleck.

Creator

"Fleck, Andrew"

Date

2019-03-22, 1605, 17th century

Contributor

Dutch Courtesan 2019 project team

Relation

The Dutch Courtesan

Format

.pdf (116KB)

Language

en-CA

Type

Text Object

Identifier

DC2019-0005

Coverage

Toronto (CA), London (UK), 2019-03-22-23, 1605, 17th century

Date Available

2019-06-30

Date Created

2019-03

References

The Dutch Courtesan

Extent

116KB

Medium

Digital PDF

Bibliographic Citation

Fleck, Andrew. '"To Creep Into the Bowels of Our Own Kingdom": Familism, Disease, and the Body Politic in John Marston’s The Dutch Courtesan'. Abstract. 'Strangers and Aliens in London and Toronto: Sex, Religion, and Xenophobia in John Marston's The Dutch Courtesan'. DC2019-0005. Dutch Courtesan 2019. Toronto, March 2019. https://dutchcourtesan2019.library.utoronto.ca/items/show/23

Spatial Coverage

Toronto (CA), London (UK)

Temporal Coverage

2019-03-22, 1605, 17th century

Accrual Method

Materials solicited by the Dutch Courtesan project team.

Accrual Periodicity

Infrequently updated after 2019.

Audience

researchers, researchers of early modern drama, university instructors, undergraduate students, graduate students

Audience Education Level

Post-Secondary, Graduate, Post-Graduate

Instructional Method

large-group instruction, small-group instruction, independent research

Text Item Type Metadata

Text

‘“To Creep Into the Bowels of Our Own Kingdom”: Familism, Disease, and the Body Politic in John Marston’s The Dutch Courtesan’ (Panel 2: Religion as Foreign Invasion – 11:30AM-1:30PM, 22 March 2019)
Andrew Fleck (University of Texas at El Paso)

John Marston’s Dutch Courtesan has recently been read within the context of broad Protestant Apocalypticism, at the expense of the national interests of an English playwright writing a London city comedy for a primarily English audience. And yet, The Dutch Courtesan does blur the boundaries of national identity, with both English and non-English characters who profess adherence to the heterodox sect known as the Family of Love. Familism, as it is sometimes called, had its origins in the Low Countries and came to England, as many unorthodox religious outlooks did, with migration spurred by Continental Catholic persecution. Such imported religious views were often described as an “infection” by those who sought to maintain the Church of England’s hierarchical control over the spectrum of belief and practice in early modern England. In this paper, taking the
play’s references to disease and health of the body as a way of thinking about the larger body politic, I argue that despite the blurring of differences that seems to occur with the introduction of Familism into a brothel in London’s liberties, Marston’s play does eventually demarcate national
differences that preserve a sense of English identity by the end of his comedy.

Andrew Fleck is associate professor of English at the University of Texas in El Paso. He is the editor of Explorations in Renaissance Culture, a journal associated with the RSA's regional South-Central Renaissance Conference (he's always looking for good submissions and would love to hear from you about your work). He works on the Dutch in the English imagination, having published a note on The Dutch Courtesan in American Notes and Queries and longer essays in Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900; Shakespeare Yearbook; and Medieval and Renaissance Drama in England. The monograph he’s working on is called The Dutch Device: English Representations of the Dutch 1588-1688.
The Dutch Courtesan figures importantly in one of its chapters.

Original Format

PDF

Files

DC2019-0005-Abstract-Fleck-2019-03-22.pdf

Citation

"Fleck, Andrew", “Abstract: ‘“To Creep Into the Bowels of Our Own Kingdom”: Familism, Disease, and the Body Politic in John Marston’s The Dutch Courtesan’ (Fleck),” Dutch Courtesan 2019, accessed April 3, 2025, https://dutchcourtesan2019.library.utoronto.ca/items/show/23.

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